


It's Written On The Wind

by love_killed_the_superstar



Series: Love Is All Around [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: 1960s, Abortion, Alternate Universe - 1960s, Alternate Universe - Human, Closeted Character, Discussion of Abortion, F/F, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abortion, Internalized Homophobia, Period-Typical Homophobia, Period-Typical Racism, Period-Typical Sexism, Reference to Jane Collective, and by in trouble i mean pregnant with bill dewey's baby, and then realises that's really not the life for her, based on a cold case episode, basically pearl is a closeted lesbian in 1960s delmarva and she gets in trouble
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-05-10 08:17:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5578202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/love_killed_the_superstar/pseuds/love_killed_the_superstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They met under the worst of circumstances. In the fall of 1969, Pearl Bisera was in deep shit.</p><p>(1960s AU. Pearl was in trouble, and Garnet just happened to take her phone call.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. i feel it in my fingers, i feel it in my toes

**Author's Note:**

> Well this is to say I actually accomplished something over winter break. I mean, when was the last time I wrote a pearlnet fic, seriously????  
> This isn't usually the type of fic I write but... I couldn't get this idea out of my head, so here it is. Basically I got a ton of feels for Cold Case 1x16 “Volunteers” so I decided why not just. write a fic. The music will kinda add a little more atmosphere since its all relevant to the time period this fic is set in, so I'd recommend it.
> 
> Music in order of appearance:  
> Procol Harum – A Whiter Shade of Pale: song playing in Dewey's truck  
> The Four Tops – Baby I Need Your Loving: song playing on Pearl's record player  
> Skeeter Davis – The End of The World: song Pearl is humming waiting to be picked up  
> Joe Cocker – I Shall Be Released: song playing when Pearl's blindfold is removed  
> The Troggs – Love is All Around: song Garnet is humming along to in the car ride back

 

It was the fall of 1969, and Pearl Bisera was in deep shit. She knew that the day of her missed period, and she knew who the culprit was, too. Bill Dewey. God help her.

She'd only gotten into this situation because Bill had accused her of being a queer while they were doing some second-base level shit at one of his father's charity dinners and there was no way she could admit to such a shameful secret of hers. They had been going steady for a few months now, and truthfully there was nothing she hated more than the sound of his pick up truck pulling up outside her house, and the way she could feel his sweat through his clothes and smell the cigars on his breath. He was already in his mid-twenties, and she knew the only reason her parents were allowing her to see him was due to her, quote, 'questionable homosexual tendencies', end quote, and the fact that he was studying law and always bragging about one day running for office.

She should have just told them he was already married in the hopes that it would let her off the hook (he was engaged to another neighbourhood girl, too, so there _was_ a grain of truth to it) but now it appeared her life depended on whether or not he would accept her announcement.

She felt sick as she pulled on her favourite pearl necklace and smoothed down her skirt. He was blasting out some old crackly song that he claimed reminded him of her, and the window was rolled down.

“Hello, Pearl to my oyster,” he greeted, cracking a grin, and she could feel her stomach turn. At this point she honestly couldn't tell whether it was the morning sickness reacting to the mention of oysters or just the idea that she might have to spend the rest of her life with this fool, but she felt such a strong urge to vomit right now.

“Bill, I have to tell you something,” she spluttered out instead of a half-baked greeting, and he raised an eyebrow.

“Well, sure, my ivory queen,” he said with a shrug. He unlocked the passenger door and she climbed in, before ordering him to roll up the windows. He obliged, grumbling as he put back the cigar he was ready to light. “What's eating you?”

“There's, um. Something I have to, uh. Tell you.” She gripped the tail of her shirt, already agonising over how she was creasing it, and bowed her head.

“Sure, vanilla swirl.” Another thing that sickened her, the pet names he gave her so patronisingly. She wondered if he gave Barb the same kind of repulsive nicknames. “Hey, what's wrong? Is it about your senior prom? Because I already told you, I can't go, but I can meet you afterwards and-”

“This isn't about prom.” She swallowed, instead turning to her promise ring. What a lie. She should switch it out for a teenage mother ring instead. “It's about... us. Our future.”

“Don't tell me you're trying to leave the state for college,” drawled Bill. “Because there's no point. How would I reach you that far away?”

“Bill, I'm pregnant,” Pearl blurted out. It felt a little good to shock him into sweet silence. She was grateful the windows were rolled up, since otherwise her parents probably would have heard it from their home. “I... I don't really know what I'm going to do about it.”

Bill stared at her, his eyes glued wide open in fear. Slowly, his gaze travelled down from her face to her stomach, and he swallowed.

“What?”

She could almost see the gears turning in his head. A baby. Marriage. Spending the rest of his life with a girl who was probably a lesbian, or at the very least a massive prude. Having to say goodbye with his engagement to Barb and living through a loveless marriage with a girl who thought The Beatles were cool.

But there was a responsibility, and as much as he was beginning to dread the thought, he supposed Pearl _was_ cut out for motherhood, if she really did like cooking and cleaning as much as she bragged about.

“I'm pregnant. Only a few weeks, thankfully,” she repeated.

“Wow. Well.” Bill cleared his throat. “I, hrm, I suppose we should get married at once, then. Better to do it now than when you're too big to fit into a wedding dress, hmm?”

Well, when he put it like that, she really didn't want to get married to him at all.

“I don't know about that,” Pearl managed to choke out. “I, um. I don't know about marrying, Bill.”

He shook his head in disbelief.

“Well, what else?! If you become an unwed mother, word will spread. I could lose my internship at the law firm, Barb could find out...”

 _Maybe you shouldn't be cheating on her in the first place then,_ thought Pearl to herself.

“O-Or, there are places you could go, aren't there?” His face brightened. “Th-They have houses, where you could go for a few months, and – why, there's one in Ocean Town-”

“No, I am _not_ going to one of those places,” Pearl said firmly, folding her arms. “I-I'm not going to have people calling me a, a _slut._ If you go there, people know, they do. And if my mother ever found out about my predicament, she would never forgive me. I _need_ to go to college, Bill.”

He frowned. “What other choice do you have? I _can't_ marry you, Pearl. Please don't beg me to.”

Like she would beg for such a punishment.

“W-Well, there's always the alternative.” She fiddled with a strand of hair falling over her face. “An abortion.”

The thought of it scared her, frankly; one of the other seniors, Jasper, allegedly once gave herself a coat hanger, and she didn't show up to class for weeks. But it was honestly a better idea than incubating the spawn of Bill Dewey for nine months, enduring the horror of childbirth and either living with Bill for all eternity or becoming the type of mother that her own frowned upon whenever they passed by in the Saturday markets.

“An abortion?!” Bill was incredulous. “But Pearl, that – that's illegal.”

“Don't worry, it won't diminish your chances of running for office,” Pearl spat, a little more aggressively than she intended. She put a hand to her still thankfully flat stomach and exhaled. “I know Amethyst knows people. There are people in the commune she lives in, they can set me up, I just... I can't let my parents know about it.”

“You can't expect me to agree with this,” Bill said sternly, though his eyes gave away his relief. “It's irresponsible.”

“Getting an underaged girl in trouble is also pretty irresponsible, don't you agree?” snapped Pearl.

Well, he couldn't deny that.

“Right. Well, if it means I can keep this a secret...”

“I need the money,” Pearl said dully, already feeling bored of his presence. “I can't have my parents finding out about this, and I don't have nearly enough to pay for this myself.”

“Fine. I can make arrangements. Give me the details once you secure an appointment and I can give you the correct amount.” He reached a hand over and stroked the side of her cheek, and she wrenched herself away from his touch.

“I don't think we should see each other after this,” Pearl muttered, arms hugging herself protectively. He scoffed.

“What? If we make it through this, we'll just be more careful. I promise, I'll use protection and everything. I'll pull out every time-”

“That's what you should have done the _first_ time! God, Bill, you're a grown man who got a _child_ in trouble! Doesn't that mean anything to you?! There is a baby in me currently because of you, I never wanted to...”

His grimace curled down into a proper frown and he sat upright.

“I knew it. I knew you were a queer. No girl right in the head would say something like that to me. You should be _grateful_ I thought you were beautiful.”

Pearl had had enough. She opened the car door and let herself out.

“I'll let you know how much to send over.”

“Fine. Screw you.”

He rolled up the window and drove off without so much as wishing her goodnight. Huffing a little, she turned back and headed up to her bedroom. When she was certain he was gone she buried her head in her pillow and cried, gripping her belly through her clothes.

 

…

 

“So what's this all about, P?” Amethyst asked with a yawn. “It's not like you to skip.”

They were holed up in the old bathroom block that nobody had used since a fire had damaged most of it in the 40s, so were thankfully alone during fifth period. Amethyst always skipped home ec and Pearl's mother had called her in sick since she'd been caught throwing up that morning, so she had crept out to meet Amethyst once her mother had gone to start her nursing shift. This was Amethyst's regular spot in school to smoke since the smell couldn't be distinguished, so Pearl knew immediately where to go.

“I need your help.”

 _That_ had Amethyst's attention, and her freshly lit cigarette froze midway to her lips. The two were thick as thieves despite the obvious differences (race, social cultures, likes and dislikes, etc) but it was rare that Pearl ever needed Amethyst to bail _her_ out.

“You need _my_ help? What did you _do_?”

“I... got into trouble, Amethyst,” Pearl sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose tiredly. Amethyst stared expectantly.

“...Care to elaborate on that? It's kind of a general statement.”

“I don't mean I got into trouble, Amethyst, I mean I got in _trouble_.” She emphasised it with a rather flippant gesture towards her abdomen, and the moment it clicked, Amethyst's jaw dropped. Her cigarette nearly dropped from her fingers, and she swore as hot ash hit her purple bell-bottoms.

“Shit! No way?!”

“Amethyst, keep your voice down!” Pearl hissed, glancing out of the frosted window pane nervously. “If we get caught we're going to get into so much trouble!”

“See, that's the kind of trouble I thought you were tangled up in,” Amethyst spluttered. “Holy shit. Seriously, I didn't think you and Deweykins were even, you know, doing it. When exactly did this little blip in your eternal abstinence happen?”

“It was his idea,” Pearl muttered. “I just wanted to enjoy the party, but no, instead we... fornicated.” She shuddered at the memory of his panting sweaty body bearing down on hers, effectively trapping her. “Amethyst, I need an abortion, as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, no shit,” snorted Amethyst. “Like Dewey wants to marry _you_ when he has dear old Barb.”

“I don't want to marry him either,” protested Pearl. “You know how my parents are.”

“Yeah, I know. Hey, why don't you just run away from home and join my commune? We have like, six queers there, and three of them are lesbians! You'd fit right in!”

“Not with a baby,” pointed out Pearl, folding her arms across her chest.

“True. Yeah, don't worry about it. I know this lady, Rose – she volunteers for this organisation, they run abortions underground. I could totally get you in for a discount. Typically you pay $100, but I could probably get you down to $75. She's a groovy lady, dating the leader, Greg. She feels sorry for the younger girls passing through, so she'd probably give you the discount.”

“That'd be great, Amethyst,” Pearl exclaimed, immensely relieved. “Bill's paying for it. If he just leaves me the money I can cut ties with him altogether.”

“What, you mean you _aren't_ going to keep him around to prove to your parents you're a practising heterosexual?” Amethyst teased, and Pearl felt a flare of anger well up in her gut.

“Would _you_? He impregnated me and didn't even feel guilty about it, Amethyst.”

Amethyst cringed and took a drag.

“Oh come on, we can't joke about it yet?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Okay, okay, it's too soon to joke about it yet. Sorry, P. Really. I'll sort it out with Rose tonight and let you know when they can fit you in.”

Pearl hugged herself as a sudden breeze swept through the cracked windows of the old block and sent a chill through her, thankful she'd slipped on her favourite thick white cardigan before leaving the house.

“Thank you, Amethyst.”

Amethyst reached over and put a hand on her shoulder.

“It's gonna be okay, P. They've helped like, nearly fifty people so far, and it's only been running six months. They have a way higher success rate than the other providers, Rose told me herself.”

“Glad to hear it,” muttered Pearl. “Anyway, fifth is going to end soon, so I should really get going.”

“Later, Pierogi,” grinned Amethyst, waving cheerfully before stamping out the ashy remains of her cigarette.

 

…

 

The next day, Pearl was finishing a diary entry, still cooped up sick in bed with her father's old record player blaring out some Four Tops song, when Amethyst stopped by to deliver study notes (poorly taken and riddled with spelling mistakes, but still readable and would have to suffice for now). Pearl appreciated that she had waited until her mother had left the house to let herself in, since she highly doubted her mother would tolerate her befriending a hippie given the way she always complained about them causing trouble.

“How are you feeling, sacred vessel?” she piped up with a grin, and Pearl rolled her eyes.

“Terrible. I can't wait until this is over with. Did you actually take notes in English or am I going to have to analyse act 3 by myself?”

Amethyst shrugged.

“Um. Probably the latter. I can't remember what happened, maybe someone died? Or something about a handkerchief? I can't remember. Othello can wait, this was just a cover up for my true motive for coming over here.”

Paperclipped to the top of the wad of notes was a torn piece of paper with a phone number on it.

“This is the number for Jane, the service my friend Rose is with. You need to call asking for Jane so that they can call you back. It's gotta stay anonymous, so promise me you won't go running your mouth about abortions and other shit that could get people prosecuted?”

Pearl stared.

“Y-You mean you can't book the appointment for me? I thought you said you could sort it out.”

Amethyst shrugged and perched down on the bed.

“Patient confidentiality, P. I can't change how Jane's run. I already tried to talk Rose into letting me set you up with the details, but she was adamant. So yeah, just leave the call, and expect a volunteer to call you back some time tomorrow and they'll run through the time and place.”

After saying her goodbyes to Amethyst, Pearl shyly left the call and focused on studying to distract herself from her racing thoughts.

To her surprise, she only had to wait two hours before the phone rang, and she hesitantly rushed to answer it before her mother could.

“Hello?”

A smooth, accented voice that sounded almost British met her.

“Pearl?”

“That's me. Um, I called earlier, about a... um, an appointment.”

“Right, I understand. You don't need to mention the cause for concern, I already know the details. How far gone are you?”

“A few weeks... seven, maybe eight?”

“We should arrange for the procedure as soon as possible. We do most of our appointments early in the morning or late at night, to lessen the risk of being intruded upon.”

“I could do this Saturday, but... I don't know if I can get the money in time,” Pearl admitted, hoping this wouldn't null the deal.

The voice on the other end hummed.

“That's okay. Try and bring as much as you can, and anything else can be paid off in a loan. We can send a car out to meet you at 6AM. We already have your address from another volunteer. The car will meet you at the end of the road.”

“All right. I guess we have an appointment then,” declared Pearl.

The voice sounded almost amused as she replied back, “I suppose we do.”

 

…

 

Pearl knew she wasn't supposed to swing by Bill's workplace, but it was a matter of urgency. She needed that money, and it wasn't like he'd drove by her street in days.

She'd never visited his office before, just passed by it a few times, and stayed in the truck the one time he'd needed to grab something he'd left at work accidentally. Working for Diamond Authorities, it left a lot to the imagination, so Pearl was a little surprised to see Bill standing at the photocopier, balancing two cups of coffee against his chest.

“Bill?”

Bill nearly jumped out of his skin, and the coffee very almost leapt out of the cups.

“P-Pearl, what are you doing here?” he hissed. “Do you realise-”

“I realise you're an errand boy, rather than actually working in your field like you told me,” Pearl cut in, raising an eyebrow, and he shut up, instead stuttering and turning an odd sweaty shade of red as he tried to muster the words to correct her. “I sorted out an appointment, but I need the money.”

“Now listen here,” he said sternly, a little too loudly, “I cannot simply allow a minor to waltz in here uninvited. Allow me to escort you from the premises, madam.”

“Is that my new nickname?” muttered Pearl, as he tugged on her arm and guided her to the outside steps.

“Pearl, what are you thinking, coming here?” Bill spluttered once they were well out of earshot. “Do you have any idea what might happen if my boss found out about this? Or the kind of trouble you're mixed up in?”

“I didn't have a choice, you haven't come by my house in days,” protested Pearl. “I need the money soon, my appointment is this Saturday and the fee is $75.”

“That much?”

“Beats having to save up for our baby's college funds, doesn't it?” she retorted. He scowled.

“...I'll see what I can do. But after I give you that money, never drop by my workplace ever again, understand me? I can't have my boss seeing me with a schoolgirl.”

“Maybe you should stick to girls your own age, then,” Pearl said with a shrug. “Promise me you'll get the money?”

He nodded. “I'll leave it in the mailbox. But after this, consider our relationship over.”

A wave of relief washed over her, and her knees nearly buckled at the thought. Some annoying voice in the back of her mind told her she shouldn't be so excited to be dumped by the only man who would probably ever love her, but she pushed it away.

“Fine,” she managed. “Have a happy life.”

She turned and left without looking back.

 

…

 

The morning of the appointment, Pearl hardly slept. She was up before her earlier alarm, and stood shivering on the street corner in a pale cardigan and her favourite pearl necklace, her knees knocking together weakly. All she wanted to do was turn back and forget about all this, but she was _not_ going to assign herself to a life of having to care for this Pearl-Bill hybrid growing inside her while he got to run off and live his life. Like hell she was going to let that happen.

She began humming _The End of The World_ since it felt pretty fitting, and she needed something to keep her distracted. She had already bitten her nails down to the quick.

At 7am to the point, a sleek brown Mercury Montego with tinted windows turned the corner into Pearl's street, and the drivers window rolled down.

“Pearl?” a smooth voice asked, just loud enough for Pearl to hear over the engine. She nodded, and moments later a shorter figure darted out and suddenly, she was blindfolded. Pearl squeaked in surprise and was firmly ushered into the back seat of the car. She heard the engines come to life and they took off.

“So you're Amethyst's friend,” the warmer, female voice stated to break the silence.

“Rose?” Pearl guessed.

“Oh, so you know who I am? Amethyst really shouldn't be giving out these details.”

“Sorry. She was just trying to reassure me, that's all,” Pearl said with a frown.

“Amethyst told us you were Bill Dewey's squeeze,” the gravelly male voice beside her piped up. She could hear the grin in his voice. “That must've been gross.”

“Greg, don't say that,” scolded Rose, without too much feeling behind it. “Don't listen to him, Pearl.”

“No, you're right. It _was_ gross. I'll be glad to never let him near me again,” she muttered.

Another ten minutes passed with only idle small talk, before they stopped and Pearl was pulled out of the car and guided up a small flight of steps. A door opened and once she heard the secure slam of the door shutting, the blindfold was removed from her eyes. She was stood in the main room of a simple apartment building, where two loveseats sat facing each other. There was a radio in the corner, and the curtains were drawn shut. The only other figure in the room was a tall black woman wearing shades and a tan jacket, standing beside the radio with her arms folded while some _Joe Cocker_ song played quietly in the background.

“Welcome to the monkey house,” the woman greeted with a deadpan voice and expression to match. _The woman from the phone call._ Her heartbeat picked up a little. Pearl must have looked startled, because she spoke again. “That was a joke. Welcome to Delmarva Jane Collective's reception area.”

“The reception area...?”

“We won't be taking you to the surgery right away,” Rose spoke up, and Pearl glanced back at her – oh, she was beautiful, but quite a few years older than her, by the look of it, “we have to talk you through the procedure first. You get assigned a counsellor, which in this case will be yours truly, and I'll call you up tomorrow as well to make sure you're recovering well. Now, should we take a seat?”

She motioned to the love seats, while Greg took off his jacket and slung it over the coat rack, before heading into what appeared to be the kitchen.

The tall woman refused to move even as Rose began explaining the abortion procedure to Pearl, though she didn't speak either, instead simply staring into the space ahead of her, though her eyes were so obscured by her shades it was impossible to tell where exactly she was staring. The walls felt like they were closing around her, the room felt much too warm. Pearl was sweating, jiggling her legs, fidgeting with her hands, just trying to distract herself from the awful fears running through her mind.

“So they'll give you caudal anaesthesia, which basically numbs the areas they'll be working on, but you'll still be conscious. Doctor Mahaeswaran carries out D&Cs using a curettage instead of the cannula method because it's got a higher success rate. You'll have to empty your bladder first, and then...”

All these words were going in one ear and out the other. Pearl was normally fascinated about medical procedures, always asking her mother to talk her through the procedures she carried out on her nursing shifts, but all she could hear right now was _they're going to cut your lower half open and you're probably going to bleed out and die and all because you let Bill Dewey put his tip in you. Stupid, stupid, stupid..._

“Pearl?”

She glanced up to see the large woman sat before her peering down at her worriedly. It took her another few seconds to realise she'd started crying.

“Oh... oh, I-I-”

Rose reached over to dab at her eyes with a handkerchief.

“Oh, honey, I know it's difficult. You're so brave to go through this so young, Pearl, and I am so proud of you...”

Next thing she knew, Pearl was crying on a beautiful hippie's shoulder, and she felt so _stupid,_ so idiotic for getting herself into such a mess. She didn't deserve the sympathy of this kind stranger, she deserved contempt, disgust, pity at how pathetic she was. Getting knocked up by Bill Dewey of all the pricks in this town...

“You matter, Pearl. You are not worth the men you date, you are worth more than what you do with them. And you're going to be all right in the end. It might hurt emotionally for a while, but you'll be glad for it in the end. Believe me. Honey, I was in your shoes a few years ago, and it was a bad situation. But now I can help girls such as yourself make the choice that's right for them. There is always a way out of this.”

The whole time Rose was holding her hand, and she gave a comforting squeeze as Pearl's tears began to slow down. She dabbed at her eyes and gave Pearl a hug.

“You're going to be okay. I know it's scary, I do. But this procedure is _so_ safe, please believe me. You could not be in better hands than Priyanka. She's a doctor.”

“A real doctor?” Pearl whispered. Rose nodded, and at that moment, the kitchen door opened.

“Pearl?”

A tall Indian woman in her mid-thirties wearing a white coat stood in the doorway, moving slightly to allow Greg to pass her.

“Give us a moment, Pri. It's been a little... overwhelming,” explained Rose, and Priyanka nodded in understanding. Rose gave Pearl another few minutes to compose herself, and then sent her to the small bathroom to empty her bladder ready for the procedure. When she returned, the tall woman with the shades was sat beside Rose, talking to her and winding an auburn ringlet around her index finger.

“Are you ready?” Priyanka asked, and Pearl swallowed. Her heart was still racing, and she still felt a compelling urge to run right out of the apartment, but the thought of having to marry Bill Dewey or reside in a home for unwed mothers was enough to make her nod hurriedly. Like hell she was going to live out either of those alternatives.

“I promise it will be a fast and almost painless procedure,” Priyanka promised, squeezing her shoulder, and the last thing Pearl saw was the woman glance up in her direction and offer an encouraging nod before the kitchen door shut behind her.

 

…

 

Pearl had lost track of the time she'd sat in the cramped apartment following the procedure, just waiting for the anaesthesia to wear off. Once Priyanka was certain she'd managed to scrape every last piece of Bill Dewey's spawn out of her uterus, she'd been moved as gently as possible to the love seats, where she had sat with her feet up on the couch arm for the better part of half an hour. To her immense disappointment, Rose had been called away suddenly during the procedure, leaving her alone in the apartment with only Greg and the mysterious tall woman. As more time passed she felt the feeling return to her, and her stomach was beginning to cramp.

“It's normal,” the tall woman assured her, upon seeing her wince and put a hand to her lower stomach. “Unless it's intense and accompanied by heavy bleeding or a fever, it's nothing to worry about.”

“You'll be a bit sensitive for a couple days, and your cycle will be messed up at first, but it'll all pass,” Greg chimed in. “Trust me, I've seen this enough times now.”

Admittedly, it did make her feel a little calmer.

“Oh. Um, the money,” Pearl murmured. She reached for her purse, which the tall woman picked up and handed to her. She rummaged around and presented the wad of cash Bill had oh so generously presented to her as a final parting gift. The woman flicked through it, inspecting it for a moment, before nodding and handing it to Greg, who busied himself with putting it in a large safe at the back of the bedroom area.

“Do you want to talk about how you feel?” The woman asked her coolly, sitting down on the seat opposite her. “It's a standard procedure, to counsel first timers.”

Pearl stared up at the grey ceiling, wondering how she actually _did_ feel. Bill Dewey was now one hundred percent out of her life, which was good news. She knew now that she was definitely through with men, which also felt oddly freeing, even if it meant she was finally shoving herself into an unspeakable lifestyle category. She wondered if she was meant to feel sad about getting rid of her child, but... she didn't. She had no real emotion towards it at all.

“I... I don't feel anything,” Pearl admitted. She glanced over at the woman, who was watching her intently. The attention felt rather nice, from such a pretty woman. “I don't think I'm even sad, or sorry that it happened. Is that weird?”

The woman shrugged.

“People respond in different ways. You could just be in shock, or maybe it hasn't yet registered what took place. Or, you're perfectly fine, and that's just how you feel. It's your experience, so nobody can tell you there's a right or wrong way to feel. Do you think having an abortion was the right thing?”

Pearl nodded automatically. Of course it was, if the alternative was living with Bill Dewey or owning up about her pregnancy to her extremely religious mother.

“Well then, that's what counts. If you believe you did the right thing, there's no correct way to respond to it. It's subjective.”

After having a few more questions answered, Pearl was slowly helped to her feet and moved with tenderness out of the apartment building, where the same Mercury Montego was waiting for them. Only a couple hours had passed, but Pearl felt as if years had gone by since the time she was last in this car. This time, she sat in the front passenger seat.

The woman climbed in next to her and tuned into the radio, which was blaring out _Love is All Around._ She sang along to it under her breath to fill the silence as they turned the corner.

“H-How long have you been working with Jane?” Pearl asked, flexing her fingers nervously.

“A month or so. I only graduated high school a few months ago, so I didn't have the time before,” the woman answered honestly. The idea that they were only a year apart made Pearl oddly happy.

“I-I'm a senior,” Pearl announced, then felt rather stupid since the woman hadn't asked for that information in the first place. She bit her lip. “I'll be eighteen in a few months.”

The woman hummed in acknowledgement.

“Maybe I'll take you out for a drink when that happens,” she said casually, eyes never leaving the road. “Providing you don't get pregnant a second time.”

“Trust me, I'm not going near any boys ever again,” muttered Pearl. For the first time, she saw the woman crack a smile.

“That so? I guess that's good news for me, then.”

“Why?” Pearl asked. She clutched her purse close to her, fiddling with the tassels. The woman shrugged.

“It's easier for me to pretend you feel the same as me.”

Now what did _that_ mean? Did she really give off a homo vibe like her parents always suggested? Or was she referring to something else? It certainly sounded like the woman was owning up to being... not sound of mind. Even though Pearl didn't understand, because she seemed _absolutely_ sound of mind. She'd never met anyone who appeared so composed, so mediating, and still so... queer.

Pearl didn't know how to answer, so she stared down at the footwell instead.

“D-Did you find out about Jane by, um. Having one?” Pearl stuttered, aware that her voice was rising in pitch due to nerves. The woman nodded.

“Most volunteers start working at Jane through that method, yes. The occasional ones are reached through other means. Take Greg for instance, he only started doing it because he wanted to impress Rose. But whatever, each volunteer we have makes a difference, even if they're doing it for their own selfish reasons.”

“Wh-Who was your man?”

“Who was _yours_?”

Pearl blushed, feeling slightly caught off guard that the woman had managed to turn the conversation back to her.

“His name's Bill. He's studying law at Delmarva State.”

The woman whistled.

“The Bill Dewey that Amethyst has been talking about.”

“That's right. Wait, you know Amethyst?”

The woman smiled and said nothing. Pearl folded her arms.

“Well, what about you? Who was your man?” she repeated, hoping she'd actually get an answer. The woman chuckled at Pearl's forwardness.

“The paper boy, Jamie. It was a one time thing, and he was a year younger than myself. If his parents had found out, he probably would have been sent to live in Keystone with his grandparents, so my mothers offered to find me a number for Jane.”

Pearl stared.

“You _told_ your – wait, did, did you say _mothers_?”

The woman grinned.

“Yes. I have two of them.”

Pearl must have looked absolutely horrified at the idea of such a social suicide, and the woman barked out a laugh.

“You look terrified. It's not contagious, don't worry. Although, I suppose I'm in that way inclined too, so I'm not the best person for that confirmation.” She looked thoughtful. “That said, I thought you were the same as me, so...”

“It's not that,” babbled Pearl, mortified. “I-It's just, that's so, um. Brave. That you told them, and that they can live like that... or do you live in the commune with Amethyst?”

“Nope. Maybe my neighbourhood is a little more accepting than yours.”

They pulled up on the bottom of the street corner, and Pearl wished the car would just keep going and going.

“We're here, Pearl.”

A thought suddenly occurred to Pearl, and she turned to stare at the woman beside her.

“You didn't blindfold me. I was supposed to be blindfolded for anonymity, and you didn't do it.”

The woman shrugged.

“Maybe I want you to come back.”

She helped Pearl out of the car.

“Will you be okay to walk back by yourself? It doesn't hurt too much?”

“No, I'll be all right. I promise I will.”

Pearl hesitated as the woman climbed back into the car.

“Um. What's your name? I, uh, I never caught it.”

The woman grinned.

“Garnet. Ask Amethyst for more details.”

She rolled up the window again and drove away, a free spirit in the quiet imprisoning streets of Pearl's road.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All I can say is, I put a ridiculous amount of time into research for a fic I wasn't even sure I was going to upload. I just feel like when it comes to historical aus you really have to know your stuff. So I tried.  
> I know not everybody agrees with abortion but I am pro-choice until the end and if you read up on the Jane Collective, they really were an amazing organisation and helped so many women. While watching the episode of Cold Case based around the organisation and later reading up on it I couldn't help thinking about how many WLW must have been pressured into having sex with their male partners back in the 1960s, and that's kind of what inspired me to turn this into a fic.  
> Next chapter will see Pearl running into Garnet again, and hey, love will bloom where seeds have been planted. <3  
> If you liked it, please comment? I haven't really written a fic like this before so any feedback would be welcomed :)


	2. love is all around me, and so the feeling grows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the late fall of 1969, had Pearl really just made a date with another woman? And on a Sunday, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bet you never thought this would actually update. Well, surprise!! Also, as it would turn out I got way more attached to this AU than I expected to, so this may stretch past the 2 chapters I planned (mainly because the second chapter would have ended up around 9k words if I didn't split it up). Anyway, I finally finished this while on vacation in Europe so here I am, tired as hell, presenting this long awaited second chapter.
> 
> Also, just a heads up, as this is set in the 1960s, unfortunately racism is a prevalent aspect of the time :// I've tried keeping it to a minimum and only where it is historically fitting, but if any of the language used in this chapter is offensive, it was not my intent. Please let me know if this is the case, as O am a white girl who has grown up in a mainly white area... so I might be in the wrong, and if I am please please let me know so I can correct it. Thank you.
> 
> The music featured in this chapter is listed below:  
> Dionne Warwick – Walk On By: Pearl's mother sits Pearl down for a talk  
> The Doors – Touch Me: Song playing in Fish Stew Pizza  
> Gene Chandler – Groovy Situation: Playing in Fish Stew Pizza

In the late fall of 1969, Pearl missed church for the first time in eight years. After spending another day cooped up in bed complaining of nausea and stomach cramps, her mother decided it would be best for her to miss out just this once. Pearl seriously hoped she wasn't suspecting her of her prior predicament; the last time she had skipped out on church was when she had had such a horrendous bout of tonsillitis the doctor had considered surgically removing them, and she couldn't imagine her mother allowing her to miss church for anything _less_ than being pregnant with the spawn of Bill Dewey.

Thankfully, that was behind her now. She hoped.

Her parents had only been gone for ten minutes or so when the phone rang, and Pearl answered, since frankly if somebody was calling during church time it had to be serious.

“H-Hello?”

Could it be somebody trying to catch her out for playing truant on a Sunday? She tried to sound as weak and feeble as possible, just in case.

“Pearl?”

Pearl felt her heart race.

“G-Gar-”

“No names here please,” Garnet's voice came back, mellow sounding in the emptiness of her home. “At least, don't use mine. Anonymous time, remember? Call me G-Squad.”

“G... squad?”

“Well, that's what a certain short friend of ours likes to call me.”

Amethyst's face flashed in Pearl's mind, and she smiled.

“O-Okay, then. What is it you called for, um... G-Squad?”

There was a soft chuckle from the other end, and Pearl imagined it must have sounded funny coming out of her mouth.

“I called to check in on you. It's a routine procedure we follow after the appointments. Just in case there were any... complications.”

“No, no, I feel much better already!” Pearl said immediately, standing more upright. “Everything is fine! It just feels like a... well, you know. It feels normal.” She blushed a little.

“Yes, I know. I'm glad you're okay.” Garnet's voice sounded warm, a hint of amusement lingering there. “I'm sorry our other counsellor left you during the appointment, she had a family emergency and couldn't stick around. I hope that wasn't too distressing for you.”

“N-No, it wasn't. You were, um. Very helpful to me.”

“I'm glad to hear that.” Garnet exhaled. “Well, that's all I'm here to ask, that you definitely aren't in any real discomfort or pain. If you feel anything out of the ordinary, please go to the hospital immediately.”

“Th-That's it?” Pearl didn't want to sound desperate, she really didn't, but she felt... a little disappointed that Garnet had seemingly forgotten their conversation in the car.

“Unless there's something else you would like to add.”

Oh, Garnet was playing her. She huffed.

“You... you know what I'm saying. Are you really going to make me say it?”

“This era of our lives is all about mixed messages. I can't always figure out what girls like you want from me.”

Pearl chewed her lip and said nothing for a few moments.

“I don't really know either. But I'd like to talk to you more, if that's... appropriate.”

There was a low chuckle from the other end of the phone.

“All right, then. Do you know Fish Stew Pizza?” Garnet asked. “It's a pizza joint in my neighbourhood. I live by the board walk, see.”

“Y-Yeah, I've heard of it before. Amethyst goes there a lot.”

“I know, it's how we met.” Her voice held amusement in it. “Next Friday I'm working a shift there. Come along after six and I'll be off duty. We can grab a bite.”

Pearl's heart thudded. This felt an awful lot like when Bill first invited her on a dinner date out to The Crab Shack, except instead of sick dread there was a dark, tingly excitement in her gut.

“Yes! Yes, um. I'd love to.” She blushed, glad Garnet couldn't see. “Next Friday. After six. Fish Stew Pizza.”

“Got it written down?”

“Don't laugh at me, I'm just reminding myself.”

“Fair enough. I'll see you soon then, Pearl.”

The phone went dead and Pearl stared at the receiver for a few seconds before shakily putting it down. Had she really just made a date with another woman?

And on a Sunday too. If her parents knew about this she'd be so dead.

Despite this, she couldn't stop smiling if she tried.

 

…

 

“So candyass Bill's out of your life now,” Amethyst drawled the next day, leaning against one of the bathroom stalls with a particularly dark burn mark. Supposedly, where the fire first started. “Congratulations. Oh, and congratulations on getting his spawn out of your life too.”

“Thanks, feels good. I think.” Pearl leaned back against the sinks, folding her arms. “My mother's still suspicious of me, but besides that, things are back to normal now.”

“Well, glad I could help. So tell me why you're once again ditching home ec? This ain't like you, P.”

Pearl chewed her lip.

“Well... I need to talk to you about Garnet.”

“You met Garnet?!” Amethyst grinned and lit a cigarette. “She's a fox, isn't she?”

Pearl smiled and played with her hands.

“You could say that, yes. What do you know about her?”

“Hmm...” Amethyst tapped her chin. “Garnet Aberra. She's eighteen, she graduated Beach City High just last year. We used to hang out sometimes after school because we got detention a lot. She's working at Fish Stew Pizza, and recently started volunteering at Jane. She's also... well... like you, I guess. If you really are into chicks, I mean.”

“I don't know who I'm really into!” Pearl retorted, frustrated, though she was beginning to have a pretty good idea. “I just... we really hit it off. We could just be friends. I need more friends, you know.”

“Am I not enough for you?” Amethyst was mock hurt, and took a drag from her cigarette. “I'm wounded. Besides, I'm pretty sure Garnet wasn't thinking about friendship when she asked you out.”

“I'm just so fascinated by it all,” Pearl said with a shy smile. “She lives so freely. She told me h-her mothers are _lesbians!_ And nobody cares! I... I just think it feels very... safe, and exciting. Like she doesn't worry about what others think of her.”

“She cares what _you_ think about her,” Amethyst pointed out, pausing to breathe out a plume of smoke. “She's seduced girls before by acting like she's completely together. I once saw her get punched in the face by a girl from one of the Turk families in the neighbourhood, screaming that she was hitting on her girlfriend. It wasn't pretty. Lesbian love spats often aren't, from what I've seen in the commune.”

Pearl figured Garnet probably didn't want her knowing about this.

“Still... I want to get to know her, Amethyst. We really hit it off well. Who knows, maybe I'll start working for Jane too!”

Amethyst shook her head, a smile on her lips.

“Whatever happened to getting out of Delmarva? Weren't you trying to get into Keystone State U? I don't even know if they have a Jane Collective branch in Keystone. Don't drop all your life plans for a crush just because she finally suits your tastes, Pearly.”

“I'm not saying that!” Pearl groaned. “I just... please stop shooting me down before I've even met up with her again? I know teasing me is funny to you, but I think she might actually like me. I don't want to knock it before I try it.”

“Ugh, fine. So what, you and G-Squad are gonna talk about your feelings all night? Or are you gonna ball in the Fish Stew Pizza bathrooms?” snorted Amethyst. “Just cause you're on the make now doesn't mean you wanna look easy, you know?”

“Believe me, that is the last thing on my mind,” muttered Pearl. “We're going to grab some food, talk about ourselves to each other, and possibly arrange a second meeting. That's all.”

“Fine, but the real dilemma is which one of you is gonna pay.”

Pearl rolled her eyes and she stole Amethyst's cigarette, taking a quick drag as Amethyst cried out in protest.

“What, you're supposed to be my friend. Let me have a drag once in a while, please,” Pearl retorted.

“I share my cigarettes with no one,” Amethyst replied, stealing it back and popping it back in her mouth. “Besides, since when do _you_ wanna smoke?”

“W-Well, it looks cool, doesn't it?” declared Pearl, chin up in defiance. “Fast girls smoke, don't they?”

“Yeah, and so do hippies. And drug addicts. And middle-aged men in the red lights district. Doesn't make _them_ cool.” Then, with a cheesy grin, Amethyst added, “Not in Garnet's eyes, certainly.”

Pearl scoffed and folded her arms.

“Well, I suppose it's bad for you anyway. That's what my mother always tells me.”

“Yeah, and your mother also tells you all homosexuals are going to hell. Do you take her up on _that_?”

Pearl shot a scowl at Amethyst.

“Look, stop throwing that in my face, okay? I get it, you think I'm a homo just because I've decided that I'm too good for Bill Dewey. No need to keep going on at me, geez.”

“Actually, I think you're a homo because Garnet, who I must point out, is also a homo, asked you out on a date and you agreed to it. But fine, I'll shut up about it. What are you going to wear? Don't wanna show up for a date with Garnet looking like a churchgoing goody two shoes, huh? You wanna look like a _gone cat_.”

“Sorry I don't look like John Lennon,” Pearl retorted dryly. “I can't help looking like this. I'm a squeaky clean catholic white girl, it's how we dress.”

“Hmm... true. I'm sure I can slut you up some. Pray to God that your parents don't catch you once I'm done making you over.”

“I'm already praying,” Pearl deadpanned, pushing a stray bang out of her eyes. Her eyes then darted up to movement near the window. “Crap, is that Palli?”

Sure enough, Peridot Palli's face was pressed up against the glass, squinting at them. Amethyst cursed and stubbed out her cigarette.

“Lets haul ass outta here,” she muttered, slinging her back onto her shoulder grumpily. As they slipped out of the back door to the block, Peridot Palli's voice rang haughtily after them.

“You're not supposed to be in there, you know! Wait until Miss Diamond hears about-”

“Aww, shut it, panty waist,” Amethyst called back without turning around. “Wait until YD hears about her sosh hall monitor ditching class just to snitch on a couple innocent girls. Try shutting the fuck up some time? What a concept.”

Peridot spluttered for a few seconds before raising her fingers in defiance and choking out, “C-Climb it, Tarzan!”

The retort fell on deaf ears.

 

…

 

“How about this one?”

Amethyst groaned and stared the offending outfit down.

“...I mean, maybe Garnet _likes_ the helpless hetero virgin look,” Amethyst commented with a squint as Pearl presented another of her best outfits to her.

“Not a virgin, remember? And _not_ helpless.”

“Also not hetero.” Pearl shot Amethyst a look and she grinned apologetically. “Sorry, sorry. Anyway. I just think you need to groove up your wardrobe a bit. Ever tried bellbottoms?”

“If my parents ever saw me in bellbottoms, they'd ground me and you know it,” Pearl deadpanned. “Seriously, I can't work the hippie look anyway. If you think I look ridiculous in my usual attire, think of how I'll look in ponchos and tie-dye.”

Amethyst tried to stifle a snort.

“True, that would be a bold look for you. But still. At least get decked out in a cute baby-doll. The skirt and sweater look is too... everyday for you, don't you think?”

Pearl hummed uncertainly.

“I suppose...” She fished around in her closet and finally pulled out a lemon gingham baby-doll dress with puff sleeves. “Maybe this one?”

Amethyst groaned.

“Geez, why are you so dang unfashionable, Pearly? I'll never understand it, you _act_ classy enough.”

“Hey, this is hip in mainstream fashion,” retorted Pearl. “Maybe you've been in the commune too long.”

“But come on, gingham? That's really... groady. Sorry.”

Pearl huffed and pulled out a second dress, a pale blue floral patterned number, sans sleeves. “How about this?”

Amethyst's face lit up.

“Now _that_ is a dress. Pretty cherry, but Garnet's kinda on the hippie scene, and hippies. Love. Flowers.”

“You think?” Pearl inspected it, a knot of anxiousness forming in her gut. “I'll still wear a cardi with it. M-Maybe my blue Mary Janes too?”

“Forget the cardi, Garnet is a biker, you should get a leather jacket. Can you imagine how many heads would turn? I mean, you're practically a twin to Twiggy, and she always wears menswear.”

“She's a supermodel, not a small town girl trying to look like a beau.”

Amethyst shrugged. “Still, I think _Garnet_ would like it.”

“No,” Pearl protested. “I still need my self-respect, after all. Cardigan it is. I have a white one that will go with this.”

“Are you gonna wear your pearls?” Amethyst asked. Pearl smiled proudly.

“Of course! It's my birth right, isn't it?”

Amethyst rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay, _pun_ kin' donuts.”

“I think you'll find _you're_ the punkin' donuts here.” Pearl put the clothes back up to hang and sighed. “It's happening tomorrow, Amethyst, and I'm getting kind of nervous. I mean... well, I don't know what to talk about with her. What does she like? What should I say?”

Amethyst shrugged unhelpfully.

“I don't know. Talk to her about music? Or her clothes, or her job – or Jane. Heck, I don't know! She's easy to talk to once you get going, just don't let the silence grow stale. That's my advice.”

“Aren't you guys friends? You know the stuff she likes to talk about!”

“P, I don't know what _you_ like to talk about, and we've been best friends since freshman year.”

“Now that's just-”

Pearl froze as the sound of a turning lock faintly dinned from the front door.

“Oh god, it's my mother, you have to hide!!”

“Pearl?” As the door swung open, her mother's tentative voice rang out. “Are you home?”

“Y-Yes, Mother!” Pearl called back. She whirled around to meet Amethyst's confused gaze. “Hide under my bed, go on!!”

“Holy shit, you're serious?” hissed Amethyst. Pearl marched her to the bed and forcibly ducked her down, all the while glancing back and forth between Amethyst and her bedroom door. Cursing quietly, Amethyst complied, and Pearl made her bed, putting down her throw so it covered the gap Amethyst had crawled through. It was a good thing she was so short.

There was a knock at the door, and the creaking sound of it being opened despite the polite gesture of consent.

“Pearl, can I talk to you for a moment?”

Pearl looked up to see her mother standing in the doorway, hands on hips. She looked mildly concerned for her daughter's well being, a sure sign that she was ready to set her mind to rest. Pearl quickly tidied away the various clothes strewn out on her bed, and nodded.

“Of course, Mother.”

White Bisera was a small, slight woman, but she could fill a room with her presence with ease, even in good moods. She shut the bedroom door behind her and wrinkled her nose as she caught the sound of Dionne Warwick's melodious voice leaking out from Pearl's record player.

“Turn that Negro music off, will you, Pearl? You're just as bad as your father.”

Pearl sighed and moved over to remove Dionne Warwick's _Walk On By_ from the player, setting her pearl necklace down on the table and trying not to blush at her mother's casual everyday racism. How she managed to stay so close-minded while living in a peacefully integrated town like Beach City was beyond Pearl's comprehension.

“All right, it's off. What's the matter, Mother?”

White took a seat on the edge of her daughter's bed.

“You know I'm your mother, and that you can _always_ talk to me.”

Pearl would have laughed, if she had the nerve.

“Of course.”

“I have to ask you. Has Bill been... good to you?”

Pearl sighed. “Mother, Bill and I have gone our separate ways. I thought you knew this.”

White scowled. “I do, Pearl. But... I mean to say... have you and him ever...” She paused, searching for the right word. “You have done certain... education in school, so you know what I'm asking.”

_Then why not just say it outright?_ Pearl thought inwardly to herself as she launched into her prepared speech.

“Mother!” Pearl feigned shock. “I'm only seventeen, and Bill hasn't even proposed to me yet, of course I haven't...!”

“Then you're not...?” White dared to look hopeful, and lowered her voice. “You're not in trouble?”

“Goodness, no! Really, Mother, you have quite the imagination! I merely had a stomach bug, it's long gone by now!”

“It's just... well, I haven't had to restock on 'certain products' for... a month or two now, so I was a little concerned.”

Pearl blushed for real this time.

“Mother, please! I-I've been buying my own. I'm nearly a grown woman now, I have to start being independent! I didn't feel it appropriate to mention to you, but since you're asking now, yes, I have been buying my own! So please don't – don't jump to these ludicrous conclusions!”

Normally her mother would have been furious at the tone Pearl was taking with her, but instead she was far too relieved to care, silently thanking God for keeping her daughter safe and virtuous for as long as he had. A lot of good it had done her, but Pearl was more than happy to let her mother believe what she wanted.

“Well, thank heavens you've abstained! I told myself, not my daughter, but the sickness, and the... lack of used products... and your odd behaviour, I was afraid for you, dear child! So please, don't give me a scare like that again!”

“I won't, Mother,” Pearl promised. “Really, I promise. I won't. Not ever again.”

White exhaled. “Well... that's all I needed to say, I suppose. Dinner will be late tonight, your father's at a meeting. Do get on with studying, won't you? What were you doing with all of your clothes out?”

“J-Just sorting through! It's getting colder, so I was seeing which of my dresses I could, um, still wear to school.”

Her mother shook her head. “Not the floral, it's far too summery and... you don't want to start giving those hippies the wrong idea. Not my girl.”

“Not your girl,” bleated Pearl obediently.

“The gingham is still fine, though.”

Pearl nodded and waited until her mother had left the room, shutting the door firmly behind her, before letting out her breath.

“Your mother's a delightful lady,” Amethyst's muffled voice rang out from under the bed. “She has zero taste in fashion and lifestyle choices, though.”

“Keep your voice down,” Pearl hissed, praying her mother wouldn't come back in while Amethyst was in a compromised position under the bed. “If she hears us-”

“Home girl, chill.” Amethyst rose to her feet, brushing off her bellbottoms. “Seriously, chill. Your mom's off in her own little world now. Probably thanking Jesus you're not going to be an unwed mother, or something. D'you really think she'll hear _my_ teeny tiny latina voice?”

“My mom can sense when a hippie is in walking distance of our house.”

“Except when I'm literally three feet away from her!”

“Seriously, please be quiet! I'll sneak you out and see you tomorrow, okay? I just can't – I can't risk her seeing you.”

Amethyst rolled her eyes and stretched. “Look, I'm gonna hop out the window, okay? Tell me how it goes with G-Squad tomorrow, okay?”

“I'll tell you as soon as I can,” promised Pearl, opening the window and watching disapprovingly as Amethyst shimmied out and onto the slanting roof. “You'll probably see her sooner than you'll see me, though.”

“Very true,” agreed Amethyst, before sliding down the roof, narrowly avoiding landing on the rose bush in the front garden, and sprinting away.

 

…

 

Pearl was nervous. Real nervous.

She brushed herself down again, trying to collect her thoughts. She had told her mother she was going to the library to study for an upcoming test, and would be staying on until late and grabbing some dinner with her study group at The Crab Shack – a believable lie she had told numerous times, with a 95% success rate. Instead she was standing outside Fish Stew Pizza during its evening dinner service, just out of sight on the off chance Garnet could see her, and she felt ready to be sick from the nerves.

Her first date with a woman, and she was a complete wreck over it.

Pearl glanced down at her watch. 5:54. Six minutes until Garnet was available. She applied a pale peach tone to her lips one last time, making sure she had every spot covered in her compact mirror. Behind her, the soft din of the crashing waves did little to calm her. Pearl seldom went down to the board walk, aside from days on the beach – her mother always insisted that the board walk crowd were 'common' – so she felt in unfamiliar waters as she stood outside the entrance to Fish Stew Pizza, her heart going ten miles a minute.

After spending a few more agonising minutes pacing, grooming and otherwise mentally preparing for this date, she glanced down at her watch once more. 6:02. Perfect.

As soon as she pushed the door open she was greeted by the scent of warm bread and cheese wafting towards her, toasty and inviting. Some song by The Doors was blaring out over slightly rusty-sounding jukebox speakers, and there was a welcoming din of voices, laughter bouncing off each wall. It was smaller than The Crab Shack, but even more alive, the air thick with the strong scents of both baking pizza and cigarette smoke.

“Welcome to Fish Stew Pizza,” greeted a familiar voice. Pearl looked up, and to her immense delight Garnet was stood before her, just untying her apron after a shift. Pearl drank in the sight of her in her pale blue waitress uniform, and Garnet grinned. Pearl stared into her deep brown eyes, mesmerised by the rare sight. “Do I look good? My shift just ended, so I'll just go get changed and we can grab some dinner. Sound good?”

Pearl nodded and took a seat towards the back to avoid being seen by unsuspecting neighbours or friends of her parents while she was in the middle of romancing an older girl. It seemed to take less than a minute for Garnet to change and emerge again, in a greaser jacket and pants. Her signature shades were on again, no surprise there.

“Hello again, Garnet. How are you?” Pearl greeted politely, as Garnet took a seat.

“Better now I'm out of uniform. It's not easy for hips like these to avoid unwanted attention, let me tell you.” She flashed a smile at Pearl and asked, “And how about you? You all healed up?”

“Yes, thank you. I'm feeling great.”

“That's good to hear. Hey, so are you ready to order?”

Pearl nodded. “Just water, please. Are we sharing a pizza?”

“That would be advised, the portions here are out of this world.” Garnet beckoned another waitress over and asked, “You sure you just want water? We have cokes, root beer...”

“Water is fine for me,” Pearl said quickly. “Really.”

“Suit yourself. Kiki, over here.”

A shorter girl trudged over to Garnet, hands on hips. “Really, Garnet, you know where the kitchen is.”

“I'm off duty now. A water and a coke, please.”

Kiki grumbled and made a quick note. “That all, or are you eating dinner here?”

“Eating. We'll let you know when you come back with the drinks.”

With a roll of the eyes, Kiki headed back to the kitchen, and Garnet grinned. “Normally us waitresses fix our own dinner, but you're my guest, so we're both gonna be treated like guests.”

“Is she mad?” Pearl asked tentatively.

“Nah. She's just frazzled because the place is buzzing and she's working overtime for her sister.”

Pearl fidgeted with her hands.

“So, is this... full time work?”

“For now. Next year I'm applying for an internship at Diamond Authorities, or some other law firm nearby. Or if that doesn't work out, I'll apply for college again. I tried to last year, but... well, I was pretty messed up over my own abortion, so my mothers weren't convinced that I'd be ready for college.” She exhaled. “And, of course, this pays good, since I don't actually get paid for my volunteer work.”

“And I guess you can't put that on your CV, huh,” Pearl added. She then frowned. “So it... upset you? I guess that's the normal response, but I never really felt anything but relief.”

“Don't get me wrong, I felt relief too,” Garnet agreed. “But I felt like I'd had a part of me taken away – which I guess was true. I knew it wasn't right for me to have a baby, but all the same, it wasn't easy adjusting to suddenly having that taken from me.” She adjusted her shades, and then added, “How you felt is okay too, you know. It doesn't make you bad if you didn't feel upset over the ordeal. The things Amethyst has told me about this beau of yours...”

“So she's told you about Bill,” sighed Pearl, shaking her head in resign. “Ridiculous, right? He was a greasy, lecherous older man – he was in his twenties already, you know, and he has a fiancée – yet he was still somehow interested in keeping me around. He was a feeble attempt to convince my parents that they were wrong about me. Sad, isn't it, that my parents would rather allow their daughter to date a grown man than...”

“To acknowledge she doesn't feel that way about men?” Garnet finished. “There's definitely something messed up about that. I mean, most girls like us aren't as lucky as I was, I know that much. But my mothers clearly saw who I was early on, and they let it happen. There's no sense in telling your child they're wrong just because you don't understand – that's what they always tell me, anyway.”

“That's some sound advice,” Pearl said, a little wistful. “What are they like? What are their names? Is one of them your biological mother? Or... I mean, _can_ two women...?”

“One question at a time, please,” chuckled Garnet. “Usually my dates aren't nearly as inquisitive.”

Pearl's heart picked up at the thought – both that she was prying and that this was, in fact, an official date between two women and there were no cop sirens blaring in the distance.

“I'm sorry! Am I being too invasive?! I'll stop.”

“I never said that. It's just surprising, that's all. Normally, my dates don't want to hear about my mothers. But then again, usually we just skip straight to kissing behind The Big Donut.” She grinned at Pearl's expression. “But, I promise I'm interested in getting to know you, Pearl. It's just my first time schooling another girl on lady love like this.”

Oh, dear. Something about the implication that Garnet was having to guide Pearl step by step was disheartening, even if it was true.

“I'm sorry. It's just, I've never...”

“No, it's okay, really. I get it. I can't say I've been in your exact shoes, but I know what it's like to be curious. Fortunately, having two mothers has its perks when you need lady love advice.”

“So tell me about them. Please?”

Garnet nodded and took a sip of her soda, before continuing. The jukebox changed over to a Gene Chandler song that Pearl recalled her father had in his collection.

“Their names are Ruby and Sapphire, and they're both like, really short. No idea how I ended up so tall. Ruby's short, muscular and works at a gay club out of town. Sapphire's creole, and she's skinny, and she works in social work – like, takes kids out of abusive homes and stuff? They keep to themselves, mostly, but let me tell you, they're super affectionate behind closed doors.”

Pearl tried to picture the idea in her mind – a nuclear family, loving and dorky and ordinary, in a poky house in town full of useless junk and mementos of vacations... except with two moms and no dad. The thought was so pleasant, yet felt so far away, that Pearl almost completely missed the point about one of Garnet's mothers owning a gay bar. Almost.

“A g-gay bar?!” she squeaked, eyes wide and disbelieving. “In Beach City?!”

Garnet grinned. “Not quite. It's in Ocean Town. I'll have to take you there some time, Mom could probably give us discounts on drinks. I could get you dope too, if you feel like. I don't go for it personally, but...”

“I-I wouldn't, um. Be interested in getting high, I don't think. Not in a public place, anyway.” Pearl fought the strong urge to begin chewing on what was left of her fingernails. “B-But the bar might be okay.”

Garnet grinned. “I'll keep that in mind.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the slamming of two glasses down on the table. Kiki was stood before them, in a mixture of triumph and exasperation.

“Here's your drinks, folks. One coke, one water. Now, Garnet, you gonna order or what?”

“In a moment, Kiki,” Garnet promised, beaming up at her. She turned to Pearl. “What sort of pizza do you like?”

Pearl's face reddened. “I... I don't really have it very often, my parents don't approve of me eating fast food, so...”

“Understandable. We'll just stick to the basics then, okay? Just a vegetarian pizza, then, Kiki.”

“Medium or large?”

“Medium. I don't think this little lady would be able to handle your portion sizes.”

Kiki finished jotting down the order and bustled away to the other end of the restaurant, and Pearl chewed her lip, finally getting out, “I'm not _that_ little, you know.”

“I know.” Garnet flashed her a reassuring smile, and added teasingly, “But you're stick thin, so I don't want to push you. I don't suppose your folks would take it any better if you returned home with a food baby instead of a real one, would they?”

Pearl blushed even harder and took a few sips of her drink. Chuckling, Garnet did the same.

“So what were you planning on doing, once you get out of this place?” Garnet asked. “You strike me as the studious type. Were you planning on going to university?”

Pearl took a moment to think.

“I'm not sure yet. There's so much out there, you know? I could go to state university, but there are also liberal arts colleges... I'm a dancer too, you know, I've been taking ballet classes since I was about six. So maybe a dance academy. Or, there's stewardess training... or I could take a year off to figure out what next... I don't know.”

“Sounds like a big decision. Motherhood would have squashed those possibilities immediately, I know. Unless your parents would be willing to raise your child for you.”

“Oh, no,” Pearl said quickly, paling once more at the very idea. “If my mother found out... stars, she'd kill me for sure! She's extremely religious. I'm not sure if the idea of her daughter maybe being queer or being pregnant outside of marriage is worse, but regardless, I'm certain she would have disowned me or sent me to a home for unwed mothers.” Pearl sighed. “But, she'd disown me if she ever finds out about the abortion, too. That's what I don't understand about her. No matter what I do with my life, she'll never be satisfied.”

“And your father? Is he in the picture?”

“Yes, but he agrees with my mother on just about everything. Mostly because he's too busy getting blitzed to think for himself,” she muttered, rolling her eyes. “I don't think he really cares about sex before marriage, or any of that. I mean, I've heard them arguing before because he loves Afro-American musicians and she's backwards. He'd be real progressive, if he tried to be, but he doesn't because it's easier just to drown out my mother's voice. I'd do the same, if there was no risk of being kicked out for it.”

Garnet whistled. “Your family sound like tough customers. I don't suppose they'd appreciate it if they knew you were out on a date with me?”

“D-Definitely not,” Pearl admitted, with a sigh. She took a sip of water, and when she spoke again, her voice was resolute. “But they're not the ones on a date with you. _I_ am.”

Garnet's face split into a dazzling grin.

“I'll happily drink to that, Pearl,” she said with a chuckle. She reached forward to clink their glasses against one another. “So what do you think would be worse in your mother's eyes? You dating a black girl, or just dating a girl period?”

Pearl snorted. “Stars, I don't even know. My mother is archaic. I don't understand how she can live in a peacefully integrated town and still be so stuck in her ways.”

“Weakness,” Garnet inputted. “Cruelty. Ignorance. Power. Any combination. It's how it always goes with the white folks.”

Pearl hummed, looking troubled. “I just... I wish it didn't have to be like this. Divides between communities over things beyond anyone's control is just absurd.”

“You'd make a great hippie, Pearl,” Garnet said with a grin. “Though, I don't suppose that would fly with your mother, either.”

“Absolutely not,” Pearl agreed with a giggle. “She's terrible. She's always ranting and raving when she sees the hippie groups gathered on the beaches. If her own daughter joined enemy lines...”

“I just have to know, with a mother as overbearing as yours, how did you end up so indifferent to it all?” Garnet asked, resting her chin against the palm of her hand and watching Pearl intently.

Pearl shrugged, and smiled wanly. “I met Amethyst in freshman year, and she opened my eyes. I had a private tutor before high school, and it was only my father becoming demoted that gave me opportunity to escape it. I didn't have any friends before then, so I didn't have anyone's ideals but the ones my parents fed me day after day. And then she showed up, and picked many fights with me over my opinions, and somewhere in that mess she became my friend. The rest is history.”

“She really is something,” Garnet agreed with a smile. “I have to admit, I feel a little better knowing the two of you have each other. She first joined the commune the summer before she started high school, and she was in bad shape. Kicked out of her aunt's house for drinking and picking fights with just about everyone she knew... I have no idea how the two of you clicked, but I'm glad.”

“It's a long story.”

“One I'm dying to hear some day.”

Pearl smiled as she spied Kiki returning with their pizza from the corner of her eye, and brought her glass to her lips.

“We'll see about that, G-Squad.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is so dialogue heavy, holy hell. I just get so caught up in conversations, I want to capture every detail, including annoying things like hedges. Pearl's nameless father will probably never have any real screen time, but I pictured Pearl being in a dysfunctional nuclear family, so.  
> I want Garnet to take Pearl to a gay bar so bad!!!!!!! Also, to people who are wondering, Ruby is transgender in this fic. I'm currently doing more research into it before I attempt to write her character in because I want to be more historically accurate... but she will definitely appear and the topic will hopefully come up soon, if anyone felt cheated that I didn't elaborate further. I just don't want to rush over a topic like this without handling it carefully and researching it more. But as I was away from wifi while the latter part of this fic was coming to life, I couldn't start.
> 
> Anyway, gosh it's been a while but people still seem to be enjoying this fic so please let me know what you think in a comment!! I hope this was enough pearlnet to satisfy your hearts for now! <3


	3. it's written on the wind, it's everywhere i go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the early November of 1969, Pearl often found herself lost in thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally!!!!!!!!!  
> Okay so I was trying my best to update this fic on the one year anniversary, but unfortunately my social life and the common cold got in the way. Still, here it is.  
> I said I wasn't going to introduce Ruby until I had properly researched transgender people in the 1960s, but I figured I could get away with Garnet breaking down a very simple version of events to Pearl in this chapter. But, again, I am cis and I know I can't speak for transgender people, nor how they felt and acted in the late 60s, so if any trans readers feel that I have stepped out of line at any point, a) please please let me know so I can correct these things, and b) please also recognise that I am trying to realistically portray the thoughts and views of people living in a less tolerant time, so if their attitudes feel a bit iffy, it might be a product of the time or my own ignorance. If it's the latter, don't be afraid to tell me.
> 
> The music featured in this chapter is listed below:  
> The Troggs – With A Girl Like You: Playing in Fish Stew Pizza  
> The Zombies – Time Of The Season: On Garnet's car radio  
> Joe Cocker – I Shall Be Released: In Garnet's room  
> Joe Cocker – With A Little Help From My Friends: Pearl and Garnet dancing

“Tada! One veggie delight pizza for one deserving customer and one freeloading waitress,” Kiki teased, sliding the pizza down onto their table and reaching beneath the tray for plates and cutlery. “Next time you bring one of your 'friends' to work with you, Garnet, maybe you shouldn't show her your lazy side, huh?”

“Hey, if I'm entertaining somebody I can't be dashing off every two minutes to check on the food,” Garnet defended, but she was grinning fondly at the exchange. “I'll tip you good, I promise.”

Kiki groaned. “Fine. But if you do this one more time, you owe me a shift cover for Jenny, all right? I haven't been able to do my morning routine for two weeks because of how hard I've been working!”

“Again, I'll tip you good,” Garnet promised. “Now, if you'll excuse us, I have a 'friend' to jazz.”

Kiki rolled her eyes. “Enjoy your meal,” she said in resignation, before turning and heading over to another table. _With A Girl Like You_ began to trickle out from the jukebox in the corner, cutting through the white noise that had enveloped the restaurant at the conclusion of the last song.

Garnet took a slice and began to eat, before motioning to Pearl. “Plate up while it's still hot.”

Pearl hurriedly took a slice and, purely out of habit, began to cut into it with her knife and fork. She looked up, concentration broken, by the sound of Garnet's muffled laughter.

“What is it?”

“You're... just so proper,” Garnet said with another laugh. “Sorry, I shouldn't be laughing. You're just so poised all the time. The perfect little lady. I've never been seeing a girl as prim as you before, it's... refreshing.”

Pearl blushed and stared down at her plate, muttering, “We were given cutlery, so I was under the impression I was allowed to use it.”  
Garnet rested a hand atop of hers.

“Hey. I'm sorry if I made you feel insulted, it really wasn't my intention.” Softer, she added, “It's cute.”

“So what about the other girls you've dated, then?” Pearl asked, braving facing Garnet. She saw her face reflected in Garnet's shades; flushed cheeks, eyes bright. “Tell me about them. I'm dying to know.”

Garnet shook her head, smiling to herself. “You want to know about my past affairs? There isn't much to tell, really. Only a few have been serious.”

“Well, I guess I just want to know who I'm competing with, that's all,” Pearl replied, trying to play her own light tone off of Garnet's. Her attempt to lighten the situation was quickly stamped out when Garnet said simply, firmly, “You don't have to compete with anyone. If you weren't something special, I wouldn't have suggested we meet up.”

Pearl hummed awkwardly, face heating up yet again under Garnet's intense gaze. Her eyes dropped back to her plate again, and she took another bite of her pizza. It was pretty greasy, but overall the flavours were pleasant and the portion size _was_ pretty generous, as Garnet had promised.

Seeing Pearl was intent on not replying to that last statement, Garnet changed the subject. “What do you think of the pizza?”

“It's good,” confirmed Pearl, after swallowing. “It's, um, greasier than I expected, though.”

Garnet grinned and shrugged. “That's pizza for you.”

“Anyway, I'm still curious about these ex-girlfriends of yours, Garnet. Throw me a few bones, please?” insisted Pearl, looking up to flash her a pleading smile. Garnet gave a low chuckle and nodded.

“All right, if you're _that_ curious. I have to admit, I've dated around some. You'd be amazed at how many girls around here will give things a chance if they're asked. Of course, that's caused its fair share of spats. Guys hate having other girls as romantic competition, as it would seem. You remember Rose, don't you?”

“That doesn't surprise me,” Pearl replied, remembering how upset Bill got whenever she so much as glanced at a woman passing by. Then she stopped. “Wait, Rose as in... the lady who brought me to my appointment? With the auburn hair?”

“Right. She was supposed to be your grief counsellor, but that didn't go to plan. Anyway, I dated her sister for a while. Rainbow, her name is. Real fun chick, loves to dance.”

“Rainbow Quartz?! You dated Rainbow Quartz?!” hissed Pearl, eyes blown wide open. “She's my dance teacher! She's, she's at least in her _twenties,_ Garnet!”

“And how is that any different to you previously dating Bill Dewey?” Garnet asked coolly. Pearl opened her mouth to reply, but it fell shut again.

“That... I... I guess you have a point,” Pearl said uneasily. “But, how long ago was this?”

“My freshman year, maybe? She was in her first year of college. She's fresh out, you know? And I grew up beside the Quartz family, it wasn't like she was some lecher seducing me from a street corner.” Garnet tucked into her second slice. “Anyway, it was short lived. The age difference certainly didn't make things easier. I think it was over a few months later. Then there was Opal, another girl in my street – senior, this time – the winter of my sophmore year. She was also fun, but she was also really flaky, so the relationship didn't last long then either.”

“And what was Opal like, aside from flaky?” Pearl asked with a smile. Garnet hummed thoughtfully.

“A bit like you, actually. A sort of mix between you and Amethyst. She was graceful and elegant, but she was also unreliable and a bit too laid back. I like to be organised, so we couldn't quite make it work in the end, unfortunately.”

“Yes, organisation is crucial to me too,” Pearl said, thankful. “Otherwise, nothing would get done.”

“Precisely. So I was on a bit of a break, living single life, and then midway through my junior year an adorable sophmore caught my eye. The name Peridot Palli ring any bells to you?”

This time Pearl couldn't hold back a choke.

“Peridot Palli?! You and Peridot Palli were-?!”

Garnet laughed aloud at Pearl's disbelief, and it took her a minute to calm down.

“Why are you so surprised? I was done playing around with flighty girls. I wanted to see if studious types were my thing. As it would turn out, they are.” She sighed and sipped at her coke. “Not sure if I should tell you Peridot's story, since you apparently know her pretty well.”

“I wouldn't tell,” Pearl promised. “Even if the temptation to spill to Amethyst is enormous. I just... wow. I can't even believe it, she's always ratting Amethyst and myself out when Amethyst is skipping class for a smoke. And she's so shrill, I just... I can't believe you two were a thing.”

“Sure, Peridot is an acquired taste,” agreed Garnet evenly. “But once you get to know her, she can be very sweet and considerate. Course, she already had a secret girlfriend when I asked her out, and she accepted my invitation.”

“I just don't know which is more shocking here, Peridot already being in a relationship, Peridot being in a relationship with another woman or Peridot having the courage to date two girls at once. I just never saw this one coming, that's all!”

“Yeah, I have to say I was surprised too,” Garnet agreed with a wry smile. “Not to mention, hurt. Not just my heart either, her girlfriend literally stormed up to me at work and threw a punch at me for 'leading her girl astray'. Needless to say, we were over soon after.”

Pearl fit the pieces together. “The girl from the Turk neighbourhood, from Amethyst's story...”

“What exactly has Amethyst been telling you about me?” Garnet grinned, shaking her head. “Don't you kids know it's not polite to spread rumours?”

“It's more than a rumour if it's true,” pointed out Pearl. “And I'm only a year younger than you, hardly a kid at all!”

“All right, all right. But yeah, that happened. I broke things off with Peridot after that, stayed single for a while... then, purely due to boredom, I got in trouble, had an abortion, and... well, now we're sitting here. That's my dating history in a nutshell.”

“Do you still talk to Peridot?” Pearl asked. “She bothers me and Amethyst a lot at school, I wasn't sure if she knew about us.”

“Not much. She _cheated_ on her girlfriend with me, I can't say I was very into the idea of keeping in touch with her.”

“That's fair.” They lapsed into silence, before Pearl piped up, “So, do you take girls here often?”

Garnet's face split into a grin.

“Only girls I like.”

 

…

 

In the early November of 1969, Pearl often found herself lost in thought.

“Earth to Neil Armstrong.”

Pearl blinked once, twice, then glanced over at Amethyst, who was holding out a hand expectantly.

“Oh. What is it?”

“I need to copy your answers, come on.”

Rolling her eyes, Pearl pushed her maths workbook towards Amethyst. Study hall was one of the few classes they shared together now they were seniors, and one of the only classes Amethyst didn't skip, presumably because it didn't require much concentration and she needed to keep up her grades somehow.

“You've been totally jazzed since your date with Garnet,” Amethyst observed with a grin. “But you can't spend your life with your head on the moon, come on. If you won't even give me the details...”

“There's nothing to tell,” Pearl protested, face reddening. “It was fine, we had dinner, we talked. She drove me home afterwards. That was all!”

“No mushy details? No kissing, or free love, or-”

“Definitely not!” Pearl hissed, mortified. “Amethyst, we still hardly know each other!”

“But it's been almost two weeks! You hardly knew Bill, and you hopped right into bed with him,” Amethyst pointed out, dodging Pearl's spear of a pencil as she attempted to stab her arm to shut her up. “Fine, don't tell me. But the sooner you just admit you're a thing, the sooner we can move on. Think Palli's up to something? She hasn't bugged us in like three working days.”

“Probably just finishing up next month's French reading,” Pearl said dismissively. “If she isn't bothering us, consider it a blessing.”

Amethyst chewed her pencil thoughtfully. “Do you think Palli's hot for chicks too?”

Pearl's cheeks flamed at the memory of Garnet's dating history, and squeaked.

“Don't be absurd!”

“Well that was a bit of an overreaction to an innocent enough question,” Amethyst said playfully, a glint in her eye. “You know something I don't, Pearly?”

“Not at all,” Pearl said quickly, fumbling through her bag as though looking for something. “I just think it's dangerous bringing these kind of ideas up in the middle of study hall. Save your conspiracies for the old bathroom block.”

Amethyst rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Hey, so have you heard from Bill since the whole fucking you over dealie?”

With a sour expression, Pearl shook her head. “No, thank god. I was worried he was going to try and ask for me back, he just loves having young things on his arm whenever Barb's not around.”

“At least you got out when you did. Heard he's stepping up to Vi now.”

“Vidalia? Really?” Pearl couldn't hide her guffaw fast enough. “She'll spit on him, surely.”

“Already did,” cackled Amethyst. “Told him to stop hitting on high school girls and run back to his daddy. It was truly a moment of legend.”

“Wish I could have seen it,” sighed Pearl, shaking her head slightly. “Oh well, at least if he comes back she'll serve him an even worse punishment than I did.”

“I think almost tying him down for life was the worst punishment of all,” Amethyst joked. “He's one of those slimy guys afraid of commitment, right? You waving a baby in his face must've made him shit his pants.”

“Amethyst, please,” Pearl admonished. “I hardly 'waved a baby in his face', I was planning on a termination the whole time. And this really isn't appropriate conversation for school, you know.”

“Whatever.” Amethyst leaned her head against her exercise book. “You should come round the commune some time, or, or the three of us should hang out, me you and Garnet. It's all good, we're all friends.”

The idea of Amethyst getting to see her blushing like a fool in Garnet's presence wasn't the most comforting, and she didn't doubt for a moment that Garnet would find the entire thing amusing, and would likely join forces with Amethyst for the sake of flustering her.

“Yes, perhaps,” Pearl lied, silently counting the seconds until the end of study hall. “In any case, it needs to be somewhere my mother won't find us. You know how many connections she has in this town.”

“I still can't believe the great white shark hasn't caught on,” Amethyst mumbled. “It's so fitting.”

 

…

 

“Pearl!”

As per usual, White Bisera barged into her daughter's room without knocking, and Pearl was just grateful she hadn't entered a few minutes earlier when she had been listening to Gene Chandler.

“Mother? I'm studying for a very important test,” Pearl said firmly, which was her own way unique to her mother of asking her to leave.

“That can wait,” her mother said dismissively, shutting the door behind her. Pearl's heart dropped. “We need to talk about Bill.”

“What about him?” Pearl asked with a grimace. “Things are over between us for now, Mother.”

“Oh, you young people will get back together soon enough,” White said with a roll of her eyes. “Or at least, you'll need to have an escort by December 12th, remember?”

Pearl froze.

“Oh,” she breathed. “The débutante ball.”

“We were lucky enough to get on this year as it was, you know that?” her mother continued, a sharp edge to her voice. “Your useless father losing his job was enough to get you removed from the waiting list three years ago, but I pulled some strings so you had better not let me down, understand?”

“Y-Yes, Mother,” Pearl said quickly, hands clenching. “Of course. I'll, um... I don't know if Bill will be able to help me, but I'm sure I can find a partner in time for the ball!”

“You had better, otherwise I will contact Bill Dewey myself,” declared White, folding her arms before glancing at Pearl's French proverbs book. “Now continue studying, child, and don't forget you have a dress fitting on Saturday. Your sudden illness last month set us behind schedule so I expect you to be present for the next four rehearsals, understood?”

Pearl nodded wordlessly, and White nodded in satisfaction before sweeping out of the room once more. Once she was sure her mother had returned to the study downstairs, Pearl groaned and moved away from her desk, belly-flopping down onto her bed and burying her face in her pillow. At least she had gotten the abortion when she did, because a pregnant débutante would definitely be the laughing stock of the ball, and it was pretty much a guarantee that her mother would cut her off if she had to drop out of the débutante ball for romping with Bill Dewey at one of the very dinners organised for the debs.

She allowed for her mind to wander to Garnet, as it so often did lately. If she was to make her debut, the idea of Garnet escorting her would be out of the question. While Beach City's débutante season was one of the first in the state to be peacefully integrated, it wouldn't stop the stares they would get if a deb was escorted to the ball by another woman. She could only imagine her mother's unbridled horror if she caught her darling daughter being escorted in a high society event by a woman, and a black woman at that. As much as Pearl liked to think that she was above caring about her mother's dated family values, she knew in the face of a situation like that, she would probably have an anxiety attack on the spot. The thought that she still felt shame for feeling how she did in Garnet's presence was... well, enraging. She _hated_ this part of herself.

Just as Pearl was reaching for a record to ease her mood (she was thinking Sandie Shaw, or maybe Frank Sinatra, she really needed to unwind) her mother called for her.

“Pearl! There's a very polite lady with a British accent on the phone and she's asking for you! Is it a college?”

Pearl didn't realise how fast her legs could carry her until she heard that.

“No, Mother, she's a friend from school!” Pearl said hurriedly, scrambling down the stairs to where White stood beside the phone. She looked surprised.

“You're certainly making good friends. Thank goodness, I was worried the public school system would pull you into the hippie crowd.” She handed over the receiver. “But what can you girls possibly need to talk about, that you haven't already gossiped over during the day?”

“Mother, really, we've both been studying,” Pearl said with a huff. “In fact, this is probably about the reading material, so, um, if you could please excuse us, Mother?”

White made a show of her disappointment.

“You're so quick to turn me away, child. No gossiping for more than ten minutes, your supper is almost ready!”

Once the door to the kitchen slammed shut behind her mother, Pearl exhaled.

“I thought she would never leave,” she said in a low voice. Garnet chuckled from the other end.

“So that was the famous Mrs Bisera in the flesh,” she stated. “I somehow expected her to sound a lot more shrill.”

“Really, you should hear her when she's angry,” Pearl whispered conspiratorially, with a giggle. “She's like a bird.”

“I'm sure I'd hear it soon enough if she knew who she was talking to,” Garnet said, and Pearl could tell from her voice that she was smiling. “Do you want to come round mine after your supper? I had a weird feeling that you wanted to hang out. I may be a little bit psychic... or maybe I'm just eager to see you again, it's hard to tell.”

“Well, you're right on both accounts,” Pearl said, pleased when she heard Garnet laugh. “I'll need to check with my mother first, but I will gladly take you up on that offer if she says yes.”

“Tell her it's a study date, I'm sure she'll agree to it,” Garnet said. “Well, maybe not the date part, but.”

“Yes, she seems to have taken a liking to you, so she might agree this one time. Wait for me at the end of the street, around seven?”

After hanging up, she changed into a turtleneck dress and some seamless pantyhose, before going to set the table for supper. As usual, her father was reading the newspaper as they ate, nursing a drink, and White continued to interrogate her on her new school friend.

“Her name is Garnet,” Pearl said, wishing to keep things on a first name basis. “She's very smart. She's taking a year before college to work so she can support herself financially.”

“That's very mature of her,” White commented. “What neighbourhood is she from?”

“I'm not sure,” Pearl said. “I think she might live in one of the country houses between Beach City and Ocean Town, you know, the ones you like so much.”

“What a respectable young friend you have, my child.” Her mother seemed satisfied enough. “Tell her not to be a stranger, she is welcome to visit any time. Are you two studying together afterwards?”

Pearl wasn't sure how exactly Garnet had managed to sway the unmoveable White Bisera, but hey, she wasn't complaining.

 

…

 

The rest of dinner was spent evading her mother's more intrusive questions about the professions of Garnet's parents, and Pearl slipped out without too much resistance. The familiar Mercury Montego was parked at the end of the street, and the very sight of it filled Pearl with relief. She smoothed down her hair once more before briskly heading towards the car, tapping on the window when she approached the vehicle.

“Are you going to blindfold me this time?” she teased, and Garnet grinned.

“Hey, no talking about company business where the pigs could hear,” she said as Pearl tugged open the car door. She took a seat and shrugged apologetically.

“Sorry.”

“Ah, I'll forgive you just this once, since you're cute.”

Pearl fiddled with the car radio as Garnet pulled away and began driving through the neighbourhood. _Time Of The Season_ began to leak out of the crackly radio speakers, and she exhaled, before turning to Garnet.

“Are your parents home?”

Garnet seemed surprised at the question.

“I don't think so. Mom is working a shift at the bar, and Mother is out on business. Something about a kid in a house fire needing emergency housing, she's seeing what she can do. Why, are your folks not comfortable with you being left alone without adult supervision? Cause I mean, I _am_ technically a high school graduate.”

“Oh, oh no, it isn't that! I just... I was curious, that's all...”

Garnet was silent for a few moments, then smirked.

“I don't know what you usually do with your dates if their parents aren't home, but I'm more than happy to take things slow.”

Pearl blushed brightly at the implication and looked away, muttering, “you're an ass,” under her breath, much to Garnet's amusement.

“ _Tell it to me slowly, tell you what? I really want to know...”_

“No shift at Fish Stew Pizza today?”

Garnet shook her head. “Pulled a sickie so I could go to the commune and see Rose and Amethyst. Rose's mother was hospitalised around the time we met, and she needed the cheering up, honestly.”

Pearl thought back to the woman with the masses of auburn curls, who was supposed to counsel her after the abortion.

“I'm sorry to hear that.”

“It's not looking too good, this is her second heart attack in five years. Apparently she was under a lot of pressure because of a débutante ball she was in charge of organising...”

Pearl almost choked.

“Rose's _mother_ is the mistress of the robes?!”

Garnet stopped at a red light and turned to her with a blank expression.

“I have no idea what that means, but it sounds like you know a thing or two about the debs stuff.”

“I... that's actually why I wanted to see you. Months ago my mother decided I was to have my début this December, it's how I met Bill Dewey in the first place, but now we're clearly separated and... and I need a partner to début with. Which I'm really not jazzed about, because I would much rather début with somebody I actually like.”

“Like me?” Garnet asked with a knowing grin.

“If only,” Pearl said with a sigh. “Unfortunately, while Beach City's débutante season is integrated I'm not sure how they would react if another woman was walking me down. My mother would die of shock regardless of whether or not you're a woman.”

“Well, maybe we can have a dance when her back is turned,” Garnet said with a grin, before parking up outside a small house tucked away behind the board walk buildings. The paintwork was a simple muted blue, with a plum-coloured front door. The driveway was small, Garnet's Mercury Montego barely fitting on, and the garage revealed hardly enough space for the car to slot into amidst boxes full of old boxing equipment and what looked like divination junk, crystal balls and tarot cards crammed into a particularly big one.

“This is... nice?” Pearl offered, miraculously managing to squeeze out of the passenger door without getting crushed in between storage boxes.

“It's home,” Garnet said with a shrug, locking the car doors. “My mothers have very different tastes, and they met through working at a carnival together, so.”

“Which of them was the fortune teller?” Pearl slipped off her coat and tucked it under her arm. “And... the wrestler?”

“Sapphire – my mother – she was into divination, fancied herself a psychic. She has a great sixth sense but I don't know how she does it. My mom, Ruby, she was working a fast food stand, I think. Used to do boxing underground, before she opened the gay bar.”

Garnet rolled down the garage doors and led Pearl into the house, which appeared to be just as confusing and contrasting as the garage had been. Some areas were neat and orderly, other areas were messy and chaotic, and as Garnet slung her jacket and Pearl's fall coat over the banister Pearl realised she really didn't know a lot about Garnet's habits at all. Was she this perfect, organised person like Pearl had originally thought, or was she untidy and uncaring, like a less unruly version of Amethyst? All she really knew about her was her dating history, a little about her family life and that she worked for an underground abortion service. For all Pearl knew, she could be on the verge of dating a serial killer.

“You want anything to drink?” Garnet asked, and Pearl felt her heart skip at the very idea.

“Y-You mean like alcohol?”

“I meant like water, but if you want to move things along...”

“No, no, water's good! Sorry.” She ducked her head, mentally cursing herself (of course Garnet wasn't offering her alcohol; what was she thinking? Just because her mother owned a bar...) and Garnet cut through.

“Don't freak. It was just miscommunication.”

There were family photographs all over the place, showing who Pearl presumed to be a younger Garnet with two smiling women, small and close and apparently _very_ affectionate. Given the strict nature of the year by year portraits White Bisera forced her family to participate in, Pearl often forgot that most families with cameras had richer, more fulfilling photographs documenting their lives than a stiff, carefully orchestrated group photograph once a year.

Garnet and her mothers (the concept still felt incredibly strange to her) looked so _happy_ together, so content. Where did her family's love go? Pearl highly doubted her mother married her father for the money, and they'd hardly spoken even before he'd been demoted and started drinking, so there must have been love at some point, and it had all disappeared. Maybe it was her own birth that sparked the end of their love, and they were just holding together because they were trapped.

“Pearl.”

A glass was pressed into her hands, and she looked up at Garnet, then to a photograph hanging beside the refrigerator. It showed Sapphire and a man holding a baby.

“Thank you.” Pearl smiled at Garnet shyly, then asked, “Who is that, in the photo with your mother?”

Garnet turned to look.

“Oh, that's me as a baby. And, well, my mom. Before she transitioned.”

Pearl stared blankly. “...What does that mean, exactly?”

Garnet hummed, folding and unfolding her arms. “Remember how you asked how two women could have a kid?”

Pearl nodded, still not quite following.

“Well... she used to be a man, but, she realised way back when that she was a woman all along. But the thing is, she was too scared to tell my mom until I was almost a year old, so she was still, I guess, pretending to be a man in that photograph. She doesn't like having pictures up that show her as a man, but it's the first photo the three of us took together as a family so she can tolerate that one.”

Pearl took a sip from her glass, trying to process what Garnet had just told her.

“So... your mom, she used to be a man.”

“Yeah.”

“And when your mother found out the truth, she was totally fine with it?”

Garnet took off her glasses, and Pearl felt a little weary under her unguarded gaze, as though she had said something wrong.

“What about you? When I told you I was into girls, were you totally fine with it?”

Pearl hesitated, then nodded.

“Yes, I mean, it's not really my business to tell you how to live your life.”

“My mothers adore each other, and you know better than anyone that when you're drawn to someone, it's something that you can't fight, even if you wanted to. It made their lives harder, sure, but they came out of it happier than ever, and if they're happy, does it really matter how it happened or why?”

“No, of course they deserve to be happy over everything else,” Pearl said quickly. “Only... I've never heard of such a thing before. It's a lot to take in.”

“You're taking it remarkably well,” Garnet commented with a wry smile. “Amethyst took a while to get it drilled into her head. Anyway, lets go upstairs.”

Pearl followed Garnet up a small, creaky staircase and into a room painted a deep wine red. The wooden furniture was dark and polished, but unlike the way Pearl's house was furnished, it had a delightful warmth to it and felt _lived in_ , in a way that her own room didn't. Garnet reached over to put a record on, and gestured for Pearl to take a seat on the bed, which she did so with great reluctance. She felt very pale and small and out of place in Garnet's room, which was plastered with posters and photographs and a painting that looked suspiciously like Vidalia's handiwork. Joe Cocker was breaking up the tension a little, a soft melody she could have sworn she'd heard somewhere before, but there was still this gnawing tension in her core.

“ _They say everything can be replaced...”_

Garnet sat down beside her.

“You have no idea how boring my life was before I met you,” Pearl muttered, staring straight ahead of her at the painting of Garnet's side profile, searching it for Vidalia's signature. “I look at you, how vibrant and jazzy everything is when you're here, how loving and wonderful your family are... and I keep thinking back to how we met. You've kept showing me the light since I met you, and every moment since I've been thinking about... well, how dull my existence is when you aren't around.”

Garnet reached over and gently cupped her cheeks, tilting her head up to look into intense russet eyes.

“Your existence isn't dull, okay? If you were boring, at any point in your life, you think we would be sat here right now? If you were boring or dull or mediocre, I wouldn't have taken our friendship past that phone call. I'm not going to give you some pick up line, like, 'you're not like other girls' or whatever. You're you, and I'm me, and if we bring out the best in each other, isn't that a good thing to be celebrated?”

She leaned a little closer, and Pearl's gaze fell to Garnet's lips, plump and plum-coloured lipstick and _feminine,_ and her heart clenched in an uncomfortable combination of panic and an urgency to be kissing her. At the last moment, Garnet moved away, instead giving Pearl a peck on the forehead, one that was bound to leave a mark.

“Anyway, talk to me about this débutante thing,” she said casually, moving away and reaching for her glass of water again. “What happens if you can't find someone to walk with you?”

“Well, I probably wouldn't début,” Pearl muttered. “Especially since the likelihood of my father attending is also very slim. I think if I don't find a date in time, my mother will sort one out herself, but she seems to think me and Bill will get back together. Which is ridiculous, of course.”

“Of course,” Garnet agreed. “How old did you say he was, again?”

“He'll be twenty-seven next spring.”

“Doesn't your mother want you seeing someone closer in age?”

“I really don't think she cares, so long as it's a semi-respectable white man who definitely isn't a hippie or a draft resister,” Pearl muttered, taking a sip. “She either ignores what I do or cares far too much, there really isn't an in between.”

Garnet hummed thoughtfully. “I can ask around the commune if you want. A few of them are from the richer parts, and can probably clean up nicely.”

“Well, thanks, but I'll ask around at school first.”

“ _I see my light come shining from the west unto the east...”_

“What kind of débutante _am_ I, anyway?” asked Pearl with a humourless laugh. “I might be proficient in ballet, but waltzing is difficult because the boys at the charity dinners are always trying to draw designs on me when all I want to do is learn where and when to step.”

Garnet's face split into a grin, and she rose to her feet as the song came to a close.

“In that case then, the best remedy is practice, right? I may not be perfect at the waltz, but my mother's side of the family came from money and she taught my mom and I how to do it a few years back. And I won't do so much as hold your hand without your say, so it's a better offer than at your debs events anyway.”

Pearl giggled shyly and stood too, reaching up to put her arms around Garnet's neck. Garnet's hands reached around and found themselves on Pearl's waist, and the two began to clumsily step in time as an organ solo burst into a rather harsh, yet somehow gospel-sounding, guitar line.

“I heard this song at Woodstock, you know,” Garnet said, with a tiny smile. “Rose and Greg dragged me along for the music, Amethyst for the scene – and it was incredible. I'm not much of a hippie, I'll admit, but... whenever I hear this song, I think about life and death... love and birth...”

“Peace and war on the planet Earth,” finished Pearl seriously, and Garnet grinned.

“Exactly. And I think about friendship, and family. My mothers, for one. They're my heroes, because they believe love comes in many forms. I'm hoping, maybe their wisdom will rub off on me, which I can then impart to you.”

Pearl blushed.

“ _What would you do, if I sang out of tune?”_

“Would you stand up and walk out on me?” Pearl murmured, and her eyes widened. “This is The Beatles!”

“Wrong. Joe Cocker. But yes, it is a cover of The Beatles.” Garnet shrugged. “I heard it at Woodstock. The original has never given me the same buzz since.”

“This song used to remind me of listening to it in the record store when I was sixteen. Then it reminded me of the night I found out I was... in trouble. It was playing on my record player when the epiphany came.” Pearl blushed and spun. “I suppose from now on it'll remind me of you.”

“It's a great anthem for when you're feeling down. It helped me... when I first got my abortion. I felt a great loss, even though I knew it was the right thing to do. I cried a lot and didn't leave the house much, so one day, my mothers woke me up at the crack of dawn, threw me out of the house, where Greg's van was waiting for me. Rose and Amethyst were there too, they told me we were going out for the weekend and wouldn't take no for an answer. We drove all the way to Empire City, and there were hippies as far as the eye could see, and we camped out in the van listening to the music that poured through. Me and Rose, we danced to this song...”

Garnet pulled Pearl in close.

“I kissed her and she turned me down, so sweetly... because we grew up together, and she's always looked out for me like an older sibling, and I was just so sad. But this song gives me the courage I had when I was dancing at Woodstock. It gives me the courage to be myself, to be in control of my own decisions, my own feelings. To accept and love myself, no matter my tastes.”

“I wish I had that courage.” The words were out of Pearl's mouth before she could help herself.

“You have it inside of you somewhere, Pearl.” Garnet's voice, smooth and sincere, tickled her lips, and Pearl was figuratively swept off of her feet, swiftly drawn into a kiss that fit like a glove in her heart.

Did she have that courage? Would she ever? Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. Maybe it didn't matter, because who cared? Pearl Bisera would still exist, proudly homo or not. The sun wouldn't stop setting if she screamed her sexual orientation from the rooftops. The stars wouldn't cease to shine if she didn't. In the end, her life was hers alone, a standalone force that couldn't be controlled by an extremely religious mother and a disinterested father, or even by the woman holding her close and kissing her and intoxicating her with her sheer magnificence.

When she drew away, Pearl was starstruck.

“Woodstock sounds far out,” she breathed. Garnet barked out a laugh.

“It was.”

“I wish I could have gone. I wish I could have had some sort of... awakening. Or at least, one that was empowering and completely unrelated to Bill Dewey getting me pregnant.”

“You are just as valid as me, Pearl. It doesn't matter how it happened, or when, or where. The point is, it _did._ Your identity is yours, and nothing can change that.”

“Why is it so hard?” murmured Pearl. “Kissing you is the best thing ever. But it's...” She searched for the right word, not wishing to offend Garnet. “It's not... it's not the way it's supposed to go for girls like me.”

“What's to say it isn't? _You_ control your own destiny. One day, we will be able to walk outside holding hands and kissing and nobody will care. We just have to be patient until that day comes. But denying ourselves happiness – living in fear of showing who we love – is foolish, if you ask me.” Garnet pulled her into another hug as the song drew to a close. “I don't know how far we will go together. But I see a lot of myself in you, Pearl, and I want to know you'll keep going even if I'm not with you. It's people like us who will change the world one day. I need some more partners in crime.”

“Oh, no, I'm _not_ becoming an activist,” Pearl protested. “I keep trying to tell you, Garnet. People can't know about me. I want to go places – Keystone, Empire City, Texas – even outside places, like London, or Paris, or that place in Norway with the enormous swords. If my parents – if they ever found out – I'd be sent away to therapy or something, you know? It isn't _safe_ for me to be me.”

Garnet squeezed her hands.

“I'm not asking you to become a gay rights activist or something. I'm just asking you to love being you. There's always going to be people who don't understand us, and I'm asking you to be patient with them, but to never let them knock you down. That's all I _can_ ask of you, Pearl.”

Pearl exhaled and closed her eyes, leaning against Garnet as they slowed to a standstill. “Why me? Why did you pick me? I'd just gotten an _abortion._ I could have been the most heterosexual girl in the room.”

“Even more of a heterosexual girl than Greg?” Garnet asked with feigned surprise, and Pearl scoffed and lightly poked her arm.

“You know what I mean.”

“I do. Well, I've lived with lesbians my whole life. I guess after a while you pick up on signs. Shared looks, body language... little things that you notice that tell you when girls are the same as you.”

“And I... gave you those vibes, even back then?”

“I'd be lying if I said no.”

Pearl buried her head into Garnet's jacket and breathed in her scent, feeling a weight lift from her chest.

“I guess you'd be right, then.”

The next time they kissed, Pearl laced her fingers through Garnet's.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The scene where they're dancing is one of the first I ever wrote for this fic, which is why it might feel a bit different in tone.  
> I feel like this chapter is again very dialogue heavy but at least it introduced some new characters (even if they've yet to actually appear) and a new plot point. As for the debutante ball, when it does eventually come up... well, without giving too much away, I'm going to be drawing some inspiration from Mr Greg.


	4. so if you really love me, come on and let it show

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the early Winter of 1969, Pearl was on a mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my deadlines are over!! Yay for a long summer!!  
> I've been a bit tired lately so the build up of this chapter is questionable... idk how good it turned out honestly, I might end up adding to it before chapter 5 goes up. I worked out an end game for this plot though which is cool! It'll be 12 chapters. Which is like... 10 more than originally planned lmao.
> 
> Music for this chapter:  
> Lulu – Shout  
> Irma Thomas – Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)  
> Ben E King – Stand By Me  
> Johnny Rivers – Baby I Need Your Loving

 In the early Winter of 1969, Pearl was on a mission.

“What's your family's annual household income?”

A boy she had never spoken to before now (she vaguely remembered his surname had something to do with fried food) turned to her with a bewildered expression.

“Er, what? Who are you?”

“I'm Pearl Bisera, in your English and French classes. I was wondering your family's annual income. I need to work out acceptable ranks that I would be able to bring along to début me at Beach City's débutante ball in December, you see, and given I have no male friends of my own, I branched out.”

A hand clamped on her shoulder, and Amethyst led Pearl away from the scene firmly as the kid slipped away, with an expression of pure confusion and borderline insulted on his face.

“What exactly are you trying to do here, Pierogi?” she asked with a raised eyebrow, hands planted on her hips. “Because whatever it is, it's bad. You're just gonna attract more creeps like darling Bill Dewey if you date boys based on their income alone! Sides, whatever would G-Squad say if she caught you advertising yourself out like this?”

“She already knows, I told her there's no way a woman can début me,” Pearl said with a shrug. She eyed Amethyst sternly. “Besides, you know how fussy my mother can be. If I don't invite a guy rich enough to suit her tastes she'll set me up with someone much worse.”

“Yeah, but Ronaldo Fryman? Seriously, I did you a favour. Not only is he a poor board walk kid, if he gets obsessed with you, you're done for.”

“What choice do I have, really?” Pearl groaned. “I need somebody to go with or I'll end up with one of my mother's contacts, or worse, she'll try and put me with Bill again!”

“How bad can these guys be?” Amethyst scoffed. “It's not like they're gonna get you in trouble and then kick up a fuss about it, after all.”

“Please can we forget about that chapter of my life already?” Pearl grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose. “It's embarrassing and I've moved on. Anyway, you can't be sure what those lechers are capable of! I need to find someone I can at least hold my own against. I'm sure Ronaldo Fryman would be no match for my fencing skills.”

“I'm sure you're right,” Amethyst agreed with a snort. “But at the end of the day, Ronaldo isn't gonna fly with your mom. Let me handle this, okay? Me and Garnet have been working on a plan.”

“You and Garnet? What kind of a plan?”

“Come to Fish Stew Pizza tomorrow night and we'll talk you through it,” Amethyst promised with a teasing grin, heading out the heavy front doors towards the bus stop. “Tell your ma that you're studying with Garnet, she'll send you packing with some dough!”

 

…

 

Pearl showed up at six on the dot, clad in a pale yellow dress and, much to Amethyst's glee, a pair of cherry red seamless tights. Immediately Amethyst waved her over to a table towards the back of the restaurant. Garnet, still in her waitressing uniform, followed her over.

“What can I get you ladies before my shift ends?”

“One of those chocolate milkshakes with the cherry!” crowed Amethyst.

“Orange juice?” Pearl added on plainly. With a grin and a wink, Garnet waltzed back through the doors to the kitchens, and Pearl sat down opposite Amethyst.

“You're looking real _cherry_ today,” grinned Amethyst, eyeing Pearl up and down approvingly. “Get it, cherry? Got all dolled up to see your giiiiirlfriend?”

“Amethyst, please!” complained Pearl, flushing all shades of red. “I'm hardly dressed up! And... and I would hardly say Garnet and I are close enough yet to use labels like that.”

“Sure, sure, right. What's with the tights though, Pierogi? Won't your mom flip her wig?”

“It's... it's an act of rebellion!” Pearl said, almost smugly. “I bought them on Saturday and hid them behind my bookshelf. She thinks I'm so pristine!”

“Well, it's a good look, doll,” drawled Amethyst. “Sure Garnet will be _very_ impressed.”

“I didn't just do this for Garnet!” Pearl protested. “I did this for me too, you know! You were the one who said I needed to be more out there, so I'm doing it.”

Amethyst held up her hands in surrender. “Hey, babe, I'm all for it. No complaints.”

Garnet returned with the drinks, no longer in her waitressing uniform, instead wearing mustard-coloured pants and an oversized leather jacket with an emblem reading 'cool dad' on the back.

“Love the tights,” she said with a wry smile, and Pearl's blush returned.

“O-Oh. Thank you, Garnet.”

Amethyst snickered into the palm of her hand as Garnet took a seat beside her.

“So explain your oh so brilliant plan.” Pearl sat back in the booth, arms folded sternly, and Garnet and Amethyst exchanged looks. “Don't be like that, you've both been very secretive about it!”

“This is weird,” Amethyst said with a smirk. “I can't tell which of us is the third wheel.”

“No one is, it's a three-way date.” Garnet shrugged.

“Garnet!”

“I already know what you two get up to,” Amethyst said with a shrug, leaning over to change the jukebox track beside them. Lulu's _Shout_ began to crackle out. “Anyway, we both knew you needed a date for this debuting thing.”

“So we asked around.”

“And you actually found someone?” Pearl's brow furrowed, and she leaned forward. “Someone you two know is actually willing to go with me?”

“Well, it turns out someone else needed a date,” Amethyst grinned. “See, Rose's mom apparently runs the gig, but she's in hospital cause it stressed her out or something. So instead of attending the dance as a guest, Rose is in charge of coordinating it in her mom's place.”

“Now, her mother has connections to another powerful family in the neighbourhood, so their son has been accompanying her for the past few years,” Garnet continued, stirring her straw absent mindedly as she spoke. “But Rose is too old to debut anymore, and since she'll have additional responsibilities they won't be able to spend the evening together as dates.”

“And you think this man will be interested in escorting a high school girl? Will he try and feel me up?” Pearl muttered. “This honestly sounds too convenient to be true.”

“Well, you've already been introduced, so he knows what he's signing up for,” Garnet pointed out with a wry smile. “You remember Greg from Jane, don't you?”

Pearl's jaw dropped.

“The hippie?!”

“That hippie just so happens to be the son of one of the biggest business tycoons in the tristate area,” Amethyst crowed, taking a victorious sip of her chocolate milkshake. “The Demayo family ring any bells?”

Pearl's eyes widened in recognition, and her mouth gaped.

“You've managed to set me up with _Gregorio Demayo?!”_

“Isn't it perfect?” Amethyst's eyes lit up gleefully. “He won't try anything because he's head over heels with Rose, and you won't try anything because Garnet's already in on the plan!”

Pearl turned to Garnet in a panic.

“I wouldn't try anything in the first place, honest!”

Garnet's mouth curled into an amused smile.

“Don't sweat it, I know Greg has an overwhelming charm on the ladies.”

“I just don't understand how Greg could possibly be a Demayo,” protested Pearl. “His hair's so long! And he dresses like he lives in a van!”

“He does, most of the time,” Garnet grinned. “Greg lives in the commune under the facade of being at college, but he'll be going home for 'winter break', which happens to coincide with the debutante ball.”

“So you've checked he's okay with this?” Pearl asked once more, gripping her glass of orange juice tightly. “He definitely knows who he's agreeing to go with?”

“When we said your back up option was darling Bill he jumped at the chance, believe me,” Amethyst grinned. “You two might not be the best of amigos but this guy knows what a creep Bill Dewey is, he's happy to fill in.”

Garnet reached over to lace her fingers through Pearl's.

“It'll be fine. Trust me.”

Despite the wolf whistle from Amethyst disrupting the sentiment, Pearl felt her worries melt away just a little.

 

…

 

“I still can't believe this!” gushed White Bisera for the sixth time that morning. “My darling Pearl, being debuted by the heir to the Demayo family! Pearl... Demayo! I can already hear wedding bells!”

“Mother!” protested Pearl, rolling her eyes as she dragged a comb through her hair. “Greg and I are just friends, that's all! Not even that, he's a friend of a friend! I hardly know him and we're attending together as platonic dates?”

“I've heard he's a bit of a wayward young man,” White said with a heavy heart. She picked up her handbag and checked inside for her purse. “I believe he may have fallen in with the hippie crowd, you know how those liberal arts colleges can be! But I trust you not to be so misguided, my child. Simply remind him of the traditional values of the debutante ball, and perhaps he will be infatuated enough to court you again!”

“You have quite the imagination,” Pearl muttered. “Gregory and I barely know each other, he's just doing me a favour because Garnet suggested-”

“Ah, and when will I meet this Garnet, hmm?” White interrupted sweetly, as Pearl pulled on her shoes. “She has been such a good influence on you so far, it feels cruel of you to keep her from me.”

“She isn't debuting,” Pearl said quickly. “But I'm sure you'll meet soon enough!”

“I'd better,” agreed White. She folded her arms impatiently. “Darling, we're ready to go! We can't transport the dress by foot and I don't trust the taxi services around here so you'd better drive us!”

Pearl trailed behind her mother as her father emerged from his study, unshaven and grumbling under his breath about how god damn pointless the entire thing was. While she was inclined to agree, she knew better than to side with her father on this matter when her mother was in such a tight mood.

“It's a bloody dress, I don't see the point,” her father ranted once they had settled in the car, her father's prized 1965 Ford Fairlane. Rain drummed on the roof with a sense of urgency, willing them to drive. “It's not like it's the actual thing.”

“She has to look the part!” hissed White. “This is our daughter's debut! They already laugh at our family after you lost your job, and you want to bring further embarrassment upon us by having her show up for the dance rehearsal in her underwear and stockings?!”

“Mother!” squeaked Pearl indignantly.

“You're saying if she doesn't show up tarted up for the prom they'll make her strip down?!” roared her father, taking a sharp turn. “This sounds like a nightmare, not a debut! I'm turning this car around!”

“You do that and I will make you _very sorry!”_ screeched White, and the car fell into a deathly silence. Pearl fidgeted with her hands, chewing on her lip hard until ever so quietly, her mother uttered, “Stop that right now, Pearl.”

She did.

The stony silence continued until they reached the manor where the ball would take place, owned by the influential Pink Quartz. Pearl felt a sinking feeling in her stomach just imagining the kind of comments their family would get when she walked through the doors. Her mother did tend to be a drama queen about things like social status, but it would still be a tough pill to swallow if the snooty daughters of Beach City's wealthiest families chose to make her time there miserable.

Her father didn't stick around longer than being told a time to pick them up, and she watched with a sensation of dread as he sped away.

“Come on, Pearl,” her mother said sharply, and Pearl ducked her head and followed closely behind. They headed through the gates, carefully holding onto the dress, and were greeted midway by a warm, familiar voice.

“Pearl, is that you?”

She cringed and peered up warily as Rose approached them, bubbly and eager. “You must be White Bisera? So lovely to meet you! My mother spoke highly of you when Pearl was a junior deb, it's wonderful to have her back again!”

“It's wonderful to see you too, Rose, you're just as radiant as when I saw you debut in '65,” White greeted, and the two shook hands. “I didn't realise you were familiar with my daughter.”

Rose seemed to pause for a second, realising that she had stumbled, and glanced at Pearl for a moment before addressing White once more. “Oh! Yes, well, I make a point to get to know all of the debs, of course. It's important to carry on my mother's legacy, after all! Pearl and I spoke on the phone earlier this week.”

“Such dedication,” sighed White. “If only my irresponsible daughter had mentioned the two of you were acquainted! Pearl, you really should tell me these things!”

Now it was Rose's turn to cringe, and she mouthed an apology to Pearl for the brief moment White's back was turned to the both of them.

“Sorry, Mother,” Pearl responded meekly.

“What's done is done. Now, lets get you into this dress. Are the other girls here already?”

“Due to the bad weather, only a few were able to make it today,” Rose said apologetically, leading them through a dark hallway reeking of polish. “Blair Bermet and Yelena Novik are present, and my younger sister may be in later today, but she is visiting my mother in hospital, so...”

“God bless her,” White supplied automatically. “How is she faring? Will she be healthy enough to attend the debutante ball?”

Rose frowned. “It's hard to say. I told her she needed to take it easy, but she's not the easiest woman to persuade.”

The heavy oak doors opened with a loud creak, and the ghosts of two scrawny teenage girls shot to their feet, heads bowed. Rainbow Quartz was present, presumably to assist with the dancing, and she hung at the back with what looked suspiciously like a glass of wine resting in her hands.

“No need to be so formal, girls!” Rose inputted cheerfully, waving her hand in dismissal. “You remember Pearl, don't you?”

Yelena, the skinny blonde with a sour expression, looked Pearl up and down before sneering, “Of course, the local charity case.”

“Don't say that,” muttered the girl beside her, wringing her hands together.

“You must be Yellow Novik's daughter,” White said snidely. “Rest assured, if you say a word against my daughter your mother is going to know about it, so kindly give that shrill voice of yours a rest.”  
“Mother,” groaned Pearl.

“Yes, lets not fight,” Rose said quickly. “Pearl, please get into your dress. Once the dates arrive, we can practice the dance.”

Her mother led her away from the girls, who both watched after her curiously, and they headed into one of the guest rooms to change.

“You need to be polite to them, Pearl,” her mother chastised, as Pearl began unbuttoning her blouse. “They're from very influential families, and their mothers are high on the social ladder, so it's important that we're both on our best behaviour.”

“I wasn't the one picking a fight with Yelena Novik,” pointed out Pearl, shrugging off her shirt and tugging down her skirt and tights. “I don't care if she talks about me, Mother. It's all a petty attempt to make herself feel superior.”

“Oh, you should care very much how people see you, Pearl,” White said sharply. She handed the dress over and waited until Pearl had slipped into it before starting on the pearly buttons at the back. “Looks and attitude are everything. You must look the part. Be... ornamental. How a woman should be.”

“I'm no domestic angel, Mother!”

“Then that is what you will become by the end of this season!” White snapped, and Pearl bowed her head instinctively. “I know you want to be a modern woman. I have never stopped you from working hard in school and trying to create a career for yourself. But what about what I want? I want my daughter to be a wife and a mother, I want you to have a wealthy family and to be a dutiful wife, is that such a crime? Is that too much to ask of you?”

Pearl said nothing.

“That's what I thought. Now stand up straight while I apply your make up.”

Almost fifteen minutes later Pearl emerged once more, in a dazzling white dress with trimmings of cream, baby blue and lilac, with rouge cheeks and darkened lashes, and a pearly pink coat of lipstick that made her lips feel even dryer than usual. She stood stiffly in cream heels, and Rose clapped a little.

“Pearl! You look... lovely!”

She knew how strange she looked. She had caught herself in the mirror and immediately knew her mother's exaggerated china doll look made her look hideously washed out. All she could do was duck her head while the other girls struggled to contain their giggles.

“Now that Pearl is ready, we will call the escorts in.” Rose turned to address White with a slightly uncomfortable expression, ready to quell an argument if she took her next statement badly. “Now, Mrs Bisera, I've found that both the girls and escorts perform better in private, so if you would wait downstairs with the other mothers? Mrs Novik and Mrs Bermet are enjoying a cream tea in the conservatory and would love for you to join them.”

“Oh, of course!” White beamed, and squeezed Pearl's exposed shoulder a little hard, leaving red marks when she let go. “Do behave while I'm gone, Pearl.”

As soon as the heavy doors shut behind her, Pearl exhaled, and Rose piped up, “I was expecting her to take me kicking her out a lot worse than she did, honestly.”

“Thank the stars she's gone, that woman pisses me off,” muttered Yelena.

“Me too,” agreed Pearl, rubbing at her shoulder. “At least you don't have the misfortune of living with her.”

Yelena blinked, caught off guard. “You... agreed with me,” she stated blankly.

“Yes, well, she _is_ a pain to be around.”

A smirk crossed Yelena's face. “Well, it seems Beach City's Cinderella isn't so bad after all.”

“Now that we've all had our fun,” Rose interrupted. “Your dates have arrived.”

With a clap of her hands, the doors on the east side wall opened up, and three men walked through in a line, standing straight opposite the girls. Greg, noticeably lagging behind.

“Sup, Rose,” he greeted with a cheesy grin, and she couldn't stifle her giggle fast enough.

“Greg!” she chided with a smile of her own. “This is hardly professional. You aren't my date, remember?”

“Oh, right.” His gaze flickered to Pearl, and his grin widened in recognition. “Hey, Pearl! Long time no see! You been staying out of trouble?”

“T-Trouble?!” she squeaked. “I, I've been doing just fine, thank you!”

“Save the small talk for later, Greg,” Rose said quickly, sending him a warning look. “Now, let us begin the waltz. Join your partner, and we'll get this show on the road.”

They moved into position, and he placed a hand on her waist. Immediately she tensed up.

“Hey, I'm not thrilled about this either,” he muttered, quietly enough that even Yelena's ears couldn't pick up. “But I'd rather the two of us be awkward than let Bill-stinkin'-Dewey get his grimy paws on you again.”

“I... thank you for your concern.” Pearl found herself oddly touched that Greg cared so much. “You're right, this is silly. Lets just focus on getting through the afternoon.”

As it turned out, Greg wasn't such a hopeless dancer after all. After a few practice runs to songs that they clearly weren't supposed to be waltzing to (Pearl was pretty sure waltzing to Catch The Wind was a creative peace and love decision on Rose's part), they stopped for a break, and immediately Greg slumped down in a nearby seat while Rose and Rainbow went over a few steps with Blair and her dance partner, Kevin something-or-other. Unsure of what else to do, Pearl joined him.

“Are you all right?” she asked. “You seem lost in thought.”

He sighed.

“Just... thinking about the draft lottery. It's coming up next week, and I'll be in the right age range to be drafted next year, so...” He chuckled dryly. “I'm a little nervous. Dying on the front lines isn't exactly what I planned on doing with my life, not before I've put out an LP at least.”

Pearl frowned.

“You're scared about going? I guess I can understand, though. War is... a heavy subject.”

“It's not just about being scared,” he continued, reaching to light a cigarette despite Pink Quartz's strict no smoking inside policy. “It's about my beliefs. There's no such thing as a good war, in my eyes. Why should I have to give my life to a cause I don't believe in?”

“But you're rich,” Pearl protested. “Can't you get, like, bailed out if you're drafted?”

Greg took a drag and scoffed. “Even if I could, I wouldn't be able to. My family is all for 'fighting the good fight'. My cousin Andy enlisted already, wants to be a pilot. If I told them I didn't want to go to war they'd just tell me what a screw up I am.”

“Don't smoke in here, Mr Universe,” Rose said as she wandered over, hands on her hips. “Just because my mother isn't here right now doesn't mean she won't notice if the room smells like your cigarettes.”

“Sorry, Rose.” Greg stubbed out his cigarette on the bottom of his shoe. “Just feeling a little nervous.”

“I didn't realise you suddenly cared so much about the debutante ball,” Rose joked. Her expression softened. “Is there something bothering you, Greg? You can tell me, you know.”

“Just world politics,” he muttered, scratching the back of his head. “Just... don't even worry about it.”

 

…

 

Pearl wasn't sure she could do this. She'd attended the parties. She'd learned to waltz (with some more private lessons from Garnet on the side), she'd learned how the ceremony would play out, how to socialise and how to behave. She'd even attempted to do her make up herself, before her mother had intervened, like always. Nothing had prepared her for the deafening applause of the crowd as the first girl was given away.

“Please don't barf,” quipped Yelena, nose pinched sourly as she eyed Pearl from the back of the queue of debs. “I doubt you'd be able to wash the stains out if you do.”

“Leave me alone, I won't barf,” mumbled Pearl, trying to hide her shaking hands. “I just – I didn't realise there would be so many people.”

Yelena scoffed, arms folded over a a creamy white dress with overly puffy sleeves that had just a hint of yellow to the lace. Her hair, normally primly pinned back in a ponytail, was styled elaborately. It was supposed to look stylish, but in Pearl's opinion it only made her look like a cross between a Doctor Seuss character and a lemon meringue.

“Just relax. All you have to do is smile at the crowd, curtsey at your father, allow him to give you away to your escort, and dance. After that, just smile and talk to people. Don't flip your wig.”

“Yelena,” came Blair's voice warningly. She turned, her white dress swaying a little, and she clasped Pearl's hands firmly. It was honestly impressive, considering how slippery glove on glove action tended to be. “Don't panic. I've done this many times before. If you're scared, ignore the people. Just focus on your father and your escort. Or, if you have a friend in the crowd, look to them instead.”

Pearl studied Blair's face, surprised to see that her eyes were a dark brown, almost black colour, realising that whenever she wasn't dolled up her fringe hung loosely, hiding her eyes from view and giving her the look of a sheepdog. Her dress had an extra layer of sheer fabric and was a little shorter than Yelena's, cut off just under the knee, with a baby blue ribbon adorning her waist. She was hardened from years of debutante experience, but unlike Yelena she chose to use her experience for reassuring the new girls instead of flaunting how professional she was.

“I hardly know anyone here,” Pearl admitted. “I'm not like you and Yelena. This isn't where I belong.”

“I know,” she said softly. “You're out of your depth. But you seemed friendly enough with Rose Quartz at the rehearsals. Just... look to her for strength instead?”

“Introducing, Miss Blair Bermet!”

The crowd burst into maddening applause, and Blair shrugged apologetically before turning on her heels and picking up her bouquet of pale blue roses. She walked out, head held high and back straight, until Pearl couldn't see her from behind the curtains anymore. She exhaled, picking up her own white roses and clutching them tightly. From behind her, Yelena groaned.

“Look, Beach City Cindy, you're gonna be _fine._ Stop stressing, you're getting on my nerves.”

Pearl didn't have time to speak her mind, because her name was being called and people were applauding and Yelena was shoving her forward and oh, she felt ill.

Somehow her wobbly legs started to move, and she began her walk as calmly as she could, willing her knees not to knock together, praying she wouldn't go over on her heels in these ridiculously high shoes. The hall was filled, clapping grown ups and bored-looking debs trying their best not to look bored. The escorts eyed her up and down, silently assessing her, as she took a few shaky steps towards her father. His eyes were bloodshot; clearly he'd already had a few drinks before showing up, he hated crowds even more than she did, and he gave her the smallest of nods as she curtseyed and took his arm.

Stiffly, he marched her down to where Greg was waiting. He held out his arm, and she found herself feeling nothing as she was passed over to him. There was no feeling of pride, being paraded around like a doll for her mother to show off to her higher class friends. Even the relief of the glaring spotlight leaving her didn't do much to outweigh the emptiness she felt, an ornamental pearl on display for the world to stare at.

She wished Garnet was here.

Yelena debuted, as well as Petunia Quartz, the quiet and unassuming youngest daughter of Pink Quartz. Several other girls who Pearl wasn't familiar with followed suit, and when they all stood in a line, girls in white dresses holding bouquets, like brides being picked out by lonely bachelors, the opening chords of an Irma Thomas song began, and the debutantes moved to the center of the dance floor, their escorts leading the way. Rainbow and Rose watched nervously from the sidelines, no doubt going over the steps in their heads, and Pearl only tore her gaze away when she felt Greg's hand on her waist.

“Relax,” he muttered, joining their hands and taking the first leading step. “Just follow where I go. It'll be okay.”

She chewed her lip and nodded, trying to ignore the infatuated stares of the adults around them.

“ _You can blame me, try to shame me... And still I'll care for you...”_

“Don't they have something better to look at?” Pearl ground out, eyes darting around the room. Greg chuckled.

“I mean, this is your debut, I think the point of it is for people to watch you dance.”

Pearl caught Rainbow's eye and she mouthed something.

_STOP. TALKING. WHILE. DANCING._

Greg noticed too.

“Oops. We're in for an earful later.”

Pearl managed to crack a smile, and the music took them away.

 

…

 

“Are you enjoying your debut, Pearl?” Rose asked lightly, approaching her with a champagne glass in hand. By the looks of things, it hadn't been touched.

“Oh, um. I suppose. This isn't really my scene, to be honest,” Pearl said uneasily. “What about you? You look like you have a lot on your mind.”

Rose laughed heavily. “Well, I'm running on very little sleep and I had to coordinate the entire event. It's only natural that I look a little run down, right?”

“I-I didn't mean anything by it!” stammered Pearl, holding gloved hands up in surprise, back pedalling as fast as she could. “And the ball has been beautiful so far! I'm... sorry if you thought...”

“No, no.” Rose shook her head dismissively. “Don't take it to heart, I'm just a little on edge today. Have you seen Greg?”

“Um... I believe he was conversing with some of the other escorts a while ago...”

Pearl scanned the room. No sign of Greg by the punch table, or lurking near the cute girls in the corner, or by the live band, who were on their last song, a slow and classical take of a Ben E King song from a few years ago.

A hand grabbed her arm, and her head shot up in surprise as Rose Quartz began to steer her towards the balcony overlooking the gardens.

“Rose?” she squeaked. “What's the meaning of this?”

“Shh, don't make a scene,” she said in a low voice, eyes trained on the French windows. “Your mother is conversing with Blue Bermet, it'll be quite some time before she notices you're gone. I'll cover for you if she searches, but I figured I'd give you a chance to have some fun after the torture that woman's put you through all debutante season.”

“Fun?” echoed Pearl, quirking an eyebrow. The corners of Rose's mouth twitched upwards in a smile and she gracefully pushed Pearl through the slightly ajar doors, before shutting them quickly. Pearl stood staring at the now firmly shut doors in bewilderment, before the sound of a throat clearing interrupted her confused rush of thoughts.

“Evening, my lady.”

She knew that cool, melodious voice anywhere. She spun on her heels and felt her dress sway out comically around her, like a real Cinderella. Garnet was stood in the corner of the balcony, hidden from the ballroom by a wall of vines and honeysuckle, in a tuxedo that Pearl yearned to try on some day herself, if not for the confines of her overtly feminine figure and the need to conform to what society thought girls like her should dress like. For once, her glasses were gone, revealing dark eyes like caramel. Her lips were painted that same inviting plum colour, and Pearl bit down on pearly lips longingly at the sight.

“Garnet,” she breathed, in a way that she knew sounded so pathetically needy that she wanted to kick herself. “Wait, Garnet! What are you doing here? You didn't debut! And you certainly didn't escort anybody else!”

“Had to make sure Greg wasn't stepping in on my girl,” Garnet grinned, taking a few steps forward, her shoes clacking against the cool stone floor. “Not that I don't trust you. Me and Rose go way back, anyway, and since these debutante balls have been integrated since 1964 it only makes sense for me to make a guest appearance, right? Course, I never had much reason to go until now...”

“What, beautiful wealthy girls dressed up like princesses wasn't reason enough for you in the past?” Pearl quipped, and Garnet's smile grew into laughter bubbling up from her throat like the foam off of a freshly opened soda. “And Greg has been an almost perfect gentleman this evening, I promise you! When he wasn't making eyes at Rose he was a wonderful escort, he even grabbed me a glass of champagne earlier before remembering I'm too young to drink.”

“What a prince,” Garnet said dryly. She reached over to take Pearl's hand, running her thumb over the silky material of her debutante glove. “Well, you really do look like a princess. The rouge might be a little too much, though. The work of your mother, I take it?”

“All I wanted was to do my make up by myself,” Pearl sighed, feeling humiliation welling up in her chest once more. “But she couldn't have that, she just had to... had to interrupt things, like always.”

“Minus the overly dramatic make up, you really do look lovely,” Garnet said gently. As the orchestra stepped down and generic hit singles of the year began to trickle out of the speakers placed around the ballroom, Garnet twirled her. “May I have a dance, Beach City Cinderella?”

“That nickname's really stuck, huh,” remarked Pearl. She shrugged, a shy smile on her lips. “Yes, you may.”

They waltzed slowly, picking up their pace a little as Johnny Rivers' voice drifted out through the closed doors, twirling and giggling until Pearl's high heeled shoes were discarded and the soles of her tights were blackened with dust.

“ _Empty nights I call your name...”_

Garnet drew her close, and Pearl could feel her breath, smell the musty cinnamon fragrance on her tuexedo.

“ _Sometimes I wonder girl, will I ever be the same...”_

They kissed for the briefest of moments, before Pearl pushed Garnet away.

“We can't do this, not here.”

“Nobody's around,” began Garnet, already knowing what Pearl would say.

“Somebody could see us. We've been too careless as of late, Garnet. If anyone saw, if anyone told my mother...”

“Yeah,” exhaled Garnet, face darkening. “Yeah, I know.”

Pearl clasped her hands together.

“I'm sorry. I, I shouldn't string you along like this. Of course I want to dance with you, and hug and k-kiss you, but I can't do this right now, not _here,_ not when my future is on the line.”

Garnet cupped Pearl's cheek.

“I understand. I know how hard this is for you. I'm not mad, just... disappointed, with the way the world works. We'll pick this up another time, I promise.”

Pearl hugged Garnet once more, digging in her fingers a little.

“I'm sorry. Are you... will you still be in the ballroom? Since you're Rose's guest.”

“Sure. Want me to walk you back?”

Pearl nodded, and the two slipped through the doors, heading back into the ballroom. White Bisera was still deep in conversation with Blue Bermet, waving her arms around enthusiastically as she no doubt told a story about a scandal at work, and Pearl was grateful that she was distracted. Her and Garnet headed across the dance floor, planning to lose themselves in the music until Garnet stopped suddenly.

“Garnet?” Pearl tugged on her sleeve, puzzled.

“Rose,” Garnet murmured, before walking briskly towards the edge of the dance floor, where Rose was pushing open the heavy doors and stumbling through gracelessly, Greg following suit. Garnet tugged Pearl along and they followed.

“Why are we following them?” she asked, only to receive silence in return. Garnet's eyes were trained on Rose's auburn curls bouncing against her back, growing smaller as the doors began to shut behind her. Garnet reached them in time and wrenched them open, and Pearl could only pray at this point that her mother hadn't noticed the commotion just yet as she slipped through the doors in time to have them close with a heavy thud behind them.

The two were sat at the bottom of the staircase when Garnet and Pearl caught up, unusually sullen. Greg was sat beside Rose as she sniffled, squeezing her hand tightly.

“Is something wrong?”

When Rose looked up at the both of them, her mascara was running.

“Oh, Garnet. Pearl.” She removed a glove before hastily dabbing at the tracks on her face with a trembling hand. “Sorry. You shouldn't see me like this.”

“What's going on?” Garnet asked, brow furrowed. “Are you... fighting? Is it about your mother?”

“No, nothing like that,” Greg said quickly. He pulled Rose into a hug, looking pretty shaken himself. “It's gonna be okay.”

“How can you say that?” she wept, fresh tears building in her eyes. “Nothing is going to be okay!”

Pearl watched on helplessly, knowing she wasn't a close enough part of their world to offer any comfort or advice. Garnet knelt down before them, worry all over her face.

“Rose, talk to me,” she urged. “What's going on here?”

“Oh, Garnet,” whispered Rose, reaching up to wipe at her eyes once more. “Greg... Greg's name got called to be drafted. And I think I might be pregnant.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOOOOO THE DRAMA (and a side plot) !!!!!  
> Next chapter: Christmas with the Biseras (and probably Garnet).  
> Let me know what you think?


End file.
